The Masters of the Landscape 2023: Bergamo and Brescia
For its thirteenth edition, Landscape Festival doubles: this year there are two cities hosting the event. Therefore, the 'Green Squares, i.e. the central spaces around which the entire event revolves, are also double, and consequently the landscape architects consulted.
Landscape Festival 2023 in Bergamo
The Green Square of Bergamo will be designed by the architect Martin Rein-Cano of the Topotek studio 1< /strong> of Berlin, who will take care of the Piazza Vecchia in the Upper Town in Bergamo, which has always been a symbol of the Landscape Festival.
In line with the theme of the Festival, the installation Grow together, Grow green / 10 k+ will be a collective action that will develop on three levels: deconstruction, activation, growth in green and will result in a modular pyramid-shaped structure, of high social and participatory value. Made with reusable scaffolding on which are placed seedlings of forest species typical of the Lombardy region, which will be distributed during the event.
The subtitle 10k+ refers to the number of trees - over 10,000 - which, thanks to the support of ERSAF - the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Forestry Services - will be distributed during the Festival.
The public will be invited to actively participate, adopting one of the plants that will cover the structure and which, over the two weeks, will gradually disappear as visitors, by registering via QR-code and webpage, acquire them to plant them in their own garden or in a place in the city assigned by the Municipality.
As the pyramid is emptied of the seedlings, it can be used as a seat and will allow you to enjoy some cultural activities.
“Designing a garden - and therefore also an intervention in the context of a landscape festival - is a matter of care and cultural appreciation, of understanding the interaction between nature and culture.
In the past, design culture has traditionally adopted a positivist, romantic, even formal and consumerist approach.
Against the backdrop of climatic and social developments, our approach to urban space today needs to be rethought today. The urban landscape must deal with the most current themes of environmental planning and with the social aspects: away from the culture of waste, towards reuse; away from the action of the individual, towards the common, towards a broad participation and a process-oriented approach.
Today more than ever it is the task of the designer to respond to the current challenges and needs of a place and its users with a sustainable approach and solutions" explained Martin Rein-Cano during the press conference.
Landscape Festival 2023 in Brescia
The landscape architect involved in the creation of the Green Square of Brescia is instead Silvia Ghirelli – an Italian expert who, since its first edition, has affectionately supported the demonstration.
Ghirelli will be the author of the green installations and widespread green and artistic installations: not a single 'green' center, therefore, but a city redesigned in terms of landscape and dressed in green for the three-week festival.
Some places in the historic centre will be the protagonists, connected to each other like a labyrinth: from the internal courtyard of the MO.CA – Center for new Cultures to the square of the Church of Sant'Alessandro passing through other central points of the city, such as Corso Cavour and Piazza Bruno Boni.
The latter will be the heart of the event, where visitors will be able to enjoy a 'multi-sensory labyrinth garden' accompanied by specially designed background music, live performances and aperitifs. In the centre, a large table will be positioned from which cypresses will emerge to form a barrier which, gradually thinning out, will allow the participants to look at each other, get to know each other and socialize.
In addition to the two experts mentioned above, the most important landscape architects from all over the world will gather at the Lanscape Festival 2023, as every year, in an exciting schedule of meetings, workshops, educational activities and special events.
