kulturlandschaften: recognizing areas of interest

kulturlandschaften

Kulturlandschaften was a participative urban gardening project by Meike Schalk & Erika Mayr together with Donne Nissà for Summer Drafts, in Bolzano, 3-11 July 2010.

Donne Nissà is a grassroots association of and for migrant women, http://www.nissa.bz.it , who engage in a number of activities such as giving legal advice, supporting women working in the care sector, running a kindergarten, and a number of cultural projects that deal with multiculturalism such as theater, literature, café, and course activities. Donne Nissà is based in the district of Don Bosco where they obtained the permission to re-cultivate a part of 1000 sqm of overgrown public land for community gardening, at Via Bari off Via Alessandria.

For more information on Don Bosco, see: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bosco_(Bolzano)

Summer Drafts involves various migrant and civil society associations based in Bolzano. Every year a number of international guests, artists, activists, and theoreticians who work in a participatory way are invited to spend a period between 7-10 days to work in collaboration with one or more organizations around a set of issues that are identified through a common process, http://www.summerdrafts.org

Urban gardening is a way of caring for nature and communities. The reasons to start are as diverse as the people who have a passion for it. Gardening not only enables to grow and harvest own fruits and vegetables, it also brings individuals together to share knowledge, their products, tools, and work, and to enjoy. People involved in gardening often experience closer relationships to their surroundings when they grow, cook, and harvest their own food together. Growing food in the city gives back the responsibility for ground, nature, and production processes.

28/07/2010

recognizing areas of interest

On our way to the garden we received useful material from a building site.

Before starting to clean the site we marked plants we found and wanted to include in the urban garden such as the herb artemisia, small elm trees, a young ash maple tree, and a wild butterfly bush.

In Bolzano, public gardening areas or allotment garden plots are traditionally given to elderly people. Before all elderly men are interested in gardening. We visited the allotment gardens adjacent to Via Sarentino.

We explored the illegal gardens close to Don Bosco's new development area Casanova.

Our collages were exhibited at Lungomare, www.lungomare.org .

suggestion: reevaluate what you find, make space for what you plan, and ask yourself what is needed to get closer to what you want to achieve. Establish friendly relationships and supportive networks by asking for help and donations for the urban garden. Collect knowledge about gardens and gardening, concerning legal status, layouts, and geotechnical data by exploring existing examples and talking to other gardeners. Our most inspiring model of an urban garden is Prinzessinengärten in Berlin, a mobile neighborhood garden on 6000 qm off Moritzplatz in Kreuzberg with a café. See: http://prinzessinnengarten.net . Information about intercultural gardens with advice how to set one up can be found under: http://www.stiftung-interkultur.de .