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The moving garden

2009.11.16

With its long granite table and semicircular wall, "The Moving Garden" is probably not so much a sculpture as a site, a place where fresh flowers are provided every day.

This coming-together of the mineral and the vegetable is no accident, for during different periods each day the visitor is invited to take one of the flowers.

But there are two conditions: on leaving the visitor must make a detour and at some point along the way offer the flower to a stranger who hopefully will be delighted by this unexpected act. Lee Mingwei thus sets up a situation that modifies the (most often) market-based exchange relationship by asking us to make this simple gesture.

Throughout the Biennale in Lyon – and probably elsewhere – complete strangers will find themselves coming into contact thanks to a single, ordinary action.

When I left the exhibition I was heading to the elevator when two girls offered me a yellow tulip picked up in "The Moving Garden".
Very surprised and embarrassed, I thanked them sincerely. Then I was in the lift holding the flower in front of the mirror as you can see in the last picture. May I offer you this flower?

October 14, 2009

11 Comments

Cool!

alicew · 2009-10-15: 23:26

very nice :)

kdodee · 2009-10-16: 02:44

I could argue that your last act circumvents the spirit of the work... Go and find a stranger to offer it to!

I'd be tempted to 'rearrange' the first one for an almost abstract composition.

revenant · 2009-10-16: 08:34