Events/Openings

THE ALUMINIUM GARDEN
STRUCTURAL STUDIES OF PLANTS
TOSHIHIKO MITSUYA and JUNE 14 MEYER-GROHBRÜGGE &
CHERMAYEFF
SEP 16 – SEP 30, 2015
OPENING: SEP 15, 6 PM – 9 PM

CURATED BY CELINA BASRA x HOSTED BY STUDIO PICKNICK

In the space of STUDIO PICKNICK in Berlin-Mitte, Japanese artist TOSHIHIKO MITSUYA and the architects of
JUNE 14 MEYER-GROHBRÜGGE & CHERMAYEFF present THE ALUMINIUM GARDEN: an installation of 180
structural studies in plants, specifically designed for the space, hand-made out of aluminium foil.
Aluminium is a surface material shaped by the forces around it. Far from static, it takes on the feeling of its surroundings, the wind, the light and the hands that touch it. As a material, aluminium starts in a huge factory
and ends in something precious yet transitive: the installation reclaims an industrial material back to nature.
Toshihiko Mitsuya has been working with the medium for a long time, creating sculptures from miniature to monumental, fusing Japanese myth and contemporary visual culture. THE ALUMINIUM GARDEN is the third
collaboration between the artist and studio JUNE 14, Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge and Sam Chermayeff, who previously worked with Sanaa in Japan, and designed this year's exhibition architecture for abc art fair, as well
as the garden of St. Agnes, amongst others.
THE ALUMINIUM GARDEN tests the boundaries of the material, which can develop immense strength, while appearing fragile and delicate. Because of its soft properties, each plant, and thus the whole garden, can change its shape, considering the elements and direction of light in its set-up. Thus, the plants form one continuous landscape and become a flexible architecture to shape a social environment.
On entering the garden, visitors experience a space that activates the senses; they link the plants to the natural models in their visual memory, adding colours, movement and sounds in their mind.