Garden of Love and Fire

Almere, Netherlands

Description

This quiet meditation garden is located in the ‘town without a history’ of Almere, The Netherlands.

The garden consists of an observation platform, three narrow water canals, and a fourth dry channel on which a rectilinear volume is resting.  These lines direct themselves toward three particular locations: Salamanca, Paris, and Almere. They signify a world location in which love (Juan de la Cruz) and fire (Paul Celan) intersect in Almere’s future. The inscribed ciphers refer to the encounter between Juan de la Cruz and Paul Celan in the newly reclaimed land. They become readable at precisely those times when the materiality of forms dissolves into oblivion.

The volume is comprised of flat pieces of metal placed next to and in front of each other.  The feel is that of a vertical/horizontal labyrinth.