Koncept: Branko Franceschi
Garden's design: Marko Pogačnik, Marika Pogačnik, Simona Čudovan
Permacultural design: Ivan Rako
Programation: Permakultura Dalmacija
The Garden of Past and Future is conceived as a link in space and time of the various contextual and construction stages of the Museum of Fine Arts’s history and development. The project unites the artistic concept and collaboration with the community, above all, the schoolchildren and adolescents, the future visitors of the museum.
After completion of the second phase of construction of the Museum of Fine Arts, the north side of the new wing - a shaded area delimited by the walls of museum and wall that divides it from the baroque fortress Cornaro; remained unarticulated. Today it unites walls on the West and North featuring exterior relief and mosaic from the period when institution functioned as the Museum of the Revolution, surrounded by the remains of former horticultural decoration, with improvised earthen ramp leading up to the level of greenery on the fortress and some concrete facility structures on the East side. On the south, museum side, space is closed with huge glass windows of the exhibition space at the ground level, offices on the first and library windows on the second floor. Part of the space is covered with squarish slab of concrete, and the rest is covered with an impermeable foil which is then covered with gray rock gravel. After several years plants have begun to break through these barriers.
In the third phase of Museum’s development this area is envisioned as the covered corridor that will connect the new facilities with the current museum building, thus garden should be developed with movable containers that will be allocated in the museum’s immediate surroundings during and after the third phase of its development.
In relation to the museum’s architecture, Garden is continuation of its dominant axis and thanks to the glass surfaces and doors it is visible immediately from the entrance. Three glass panes (now covered with impermeable curtains) in the entire height of the space divide future garden from the exhibition gallery. View of the garden form the exhibition space, in its perpetual state of flux dependent on the seasons and the vegetative cycle of plants, will create an excellent example of space and content-specific art practice in the field of social participation and horticulture within the permanent installment. It will welcome visitors to pause during the tour of the collection exhibition, within a space that will enable them to relax and refresh their senses and cognitive abilities. The zone with the view of the garden will be partially divided by the walls from the rest of the exhibition space to reduce the incidence of light. Wall texts will elaborate the story of the project and related history of the institution as well as the third phase of the future expansion project.
Acknowledgments: Čistoća d.o.o., Point d.o.o., anonymous donor, Cestar d.o.o., Split Vodovod i kanalizacija d.o.o.
