Aura - Falling Garden

Falling Garden
Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger

San Staë church on the Grande Canale
Installation; mixed media

50th Venice Biennale, 2003

I wasn’t sure if we were meant to blog about paintings specifically, but on the topic of "aura art" I couldn’t go past mentioning Falling Garden. An enchanting and dream like installation at the 50th Venice Biennale 2003, turned Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger into instant international celebrities. The Swiss Art Commission had invited the young Swiss artist couple to create a work in the church of San Stae. Steiner and Lenzlinger turned the ornately decorated interior of the church into an earthly paradise. Countless delicate seedpods, blossoms, and leaves, mixed with fabled creatures from nature and mythology were suspended from the ceiling on thin wires until they almost touched viewers’ heads (such intricate detail reminds me of Sarah Sze, and therefore the quotidian object). In the center of the nave lay a soft white rug, which visitors could walk on only with bare or stocking feet. On that rug, a bed upholstered with hay invited the overwhelmed to relax and observe the installation while lying down. The scent of sweet lavender drifted from the pillows and the recorded noises of birds, insects and wind from alpine meadows, played back very quietly from dispersed, hidden speakers. Viewers were somewhat transported into a different dimension. Apparently Falling Garden was one of the highlights of the 50th Venice Biennale (no wonder).

Visit their website to see more… it’s extremely beautiful
http://www.steinerlenzlinger.ch/index.html