Paper short abstract:

This proposal aims to develop a dialogue between the meanings of Burle Marx's work and recent works in contemporary art, especially Brazilian visual arts, by some called 'living arts', specially to understand, by this narrative, how the boundaries between art and gardening are being delineated.

Paper long abstract:

Burle Marx, the best-known Brazilian landscape designer, was responsible for incorporating the tropical nature into the architetonic program of the Brazilian modernism. His aesthetic inventions are presented in works by Oscar Niemeyer, Lucio Costa, among others, and his creations are known by the general public, inside and outside Brazil, especially on urban scales.

Recently, new perspectives around the Anthropocene, especially scientific ones, populate the conceptions and practices of contemporary artists. The last São Paulo Biennial brought some artists who incorporated living matter (especially plants and vegetables) into works of art, under the conception of the german curator Jochen Volz. Volz wrote on his curatorial text published on the catalogue that the exhibition have been 'built as a garden, where themes and ideas are loosely woven into a integrated whole, structurated in layers, the attempt of ecology itself'.

In this presentation, I propose a comparative dialogue between the meanings of Burle Marx's work and the recent movement in contemporary art, especially Brazilian visual arts, by some called 'living arts'. In this case, I intend to analyze the works of Cristiano Lenhardt, Carla Felipe, Jorge Mena Barreto, and how they incorporate as part of their work weeds, tuber growth, and food made with unusual vegetables.

What does the approach of artists from two different historical moments help us look at the paths of art and society? How the boundaries between art and gardening are beeing delineated? How these works in question shift the object of art and anthropology?