Workshop WANT
Since 2016 the Giardino has hosted workshops under the title WANT. These workshops were the product of collaboration between Stefano Mancuso, the Istituto LINV (International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology) and the Foundation »Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri«.
Art and botany
The week-long interdisciplinary workshops in »Il Giardino« on the subject of art and botany transform the artist’s garden into a research station and location for encounters between representatives of a variety of disciplines.
The 16-hectare park »Il Giardino« enables engagement with important issues in contemporary art as well as with the subjects with which artists have always grappled (death and transience, eroticism, magic). Presentations, conversations and excursions stimulate the development of ideas and works. The lecturers explain a variety of theoretical concepts and assist in the implementation of creative ideas. Seminars take place in the morning and end with a shared midday meal. The afternoons are available for conversation among the participants as well as for the development of their own concepts.
Active engagement with the installed sculptures
Workshop participants are invited to engage actively with the installed sculptures and with the artistic problems posed by and in the Giardino. The group is supervised and supported by lecturers and experienced members of the foundation. Participants can work on various themes individually or as a team. Photography, video, text, drawing, objects and installations or conceptual works and performances are all welcome. Work plans and methods are discussed at the end of the day in a brief group meeting.
Presentation of the work
Participants are required to present the results of their work at the end of the workshop in the form of a statement, a thesis or an artistic work. Daniel Spoerri, the founder of the garden and the foundation, is available for brief one-to-one conversations with participants.
Three workshops have taken place to date
Workshop »want I« (10 – 16 October 2016)
Workshop »want II« (26 September – 3 October 2017)
Workshop »want III« (19 September – 26 September 2018)
and the following lecturers contributed to the workshops:
Daniel Spoerri
Artist and founder of the Giardino
Prof. Stefano Mancuso is a specialist in the field of plant communication and since 2015 he has been the Academic Director of the Foundation »Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri«
Nora Schöpfer, an artist from Innsbruck; she has been represented in the Giardino since 2006 with her work »Time Spaces« (Virtual Volume).
Barbara Räderscheidt, Cologne; President of the Foundation »Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri«
Prof. Hans Werner Ingensiep
Prof. habil. Phil. Dr. rer. Nat. Dipl. biol.
Biologist and philosopher, University of Duisburg-Essen
Dott.ssa Cristiana Favretto
Biodesign, urban ecology
LINV – International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology
Art historian Anna Mazzanti, Florence
Christian Thanhäuser, artist and illustrator
Paco Calvo, Philosopher; University of Murcia, Studiomobile, LINV
Dr. Leonardo Chiesi, PhD
Università di Firenze
University of California-Berkeley
Dr. Heike Baranzke
Researcher in Moral Theology
Bergische University Wuppertal
Prof. Dieter Volkmann
Prof. emerit., University of Bonn, Institute for Molecular Biology
Renate Vergeiner
ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil.
University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Susanne Neumann
Artist, doctoral candidate, Board of Trustees
The project is supported by:
- LINV (International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, Florence)
- Fondazione HIC TERMINUS HAERET – Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri
- Comune di Seggiano
- Fondazione Radici intelligenti, Seggiano
- Ausstellungshaus Spoerri, Hadersdorf am Kamp
- Fondazione Mudima, Milan
Impressions from the Workshops
