The Garden Caretaker, Herlev, Denmark

Source: Desire site experience and future plans, AAU, page 7-

Situated on the outskirts of Copenhagen in Herlev, Denmark, lies the former Herlev Asfalt Fabrik (a NCC asphalt factory). Once an industrial site, demolished to make way for urban development, it is now undergoing rapid transformation into a residential area. Amidst this transition, and as part of the Desire project, the concept of the ‘Garden Caretaker’ was introduced on the construction grounds.

The Garden Caretaker is a design proposal rooted in a regenerative approach to city planning and explores the integration of artistic methods in the early stages of urban development. This proposal emerged from the interdisciplinary 'Being of Place' methodology, which focuses on recording and mapping the unique characteristics of the site prior to its development.

The term Garden Caretaker describes an individual who, within this project, temporarily inhabits a specific location within the city. Using various artistic practices such as fictional writing, sculpting, landscape walks, performance, and music, they orchestrate, curate, and design a range of activities tailored to the site. These artistic activities are designed to foster a deeper connection between stakeholders and the natural environment, emphasizing the site-specific qualities and the symbiotic relationship between humans, flora, fauna, and the surrounding ecosystem.

Stakeholders include residents and workers of Herlev, educational institutions and daycare centres in the area, builders working on the site, the artistic community, the local multispecies ecosystem, and the Desire partners. Involving these multiple partners and stakeholders, the primary objective is to engage citizens and foster a multispecies community with a strong emphasis on biodiversity and relational aesthetics.

The overarching approach 'Being of Place' is exemplified by the Desire tool Multispecies Postcards.

Listen to the place before you develop it. But how? Perhaps by using art!

In Desire an Irresistible Circular Society our partner in Herlev, Denmark NXT has introduced a new character ‘The Garden Caretaker’ to help reconcile the city with nature.

Watch the video and meet: Madeleine Kate McGowan from NXT, Peter Andreas Sattrup from NCC, Georg Jagunov, and Arendse Krabbe. The video was created by Benjamin Hesselholdt in September 2023.

The woman at the core of the Garden Caretakers in Herlev and utilizer of the being of place idea, Madeleine Kate McGowan of the NXT communication and innovation bureau is our guest in this Desire podcast. Listen to the podcast 

The primary methodology is based on inviting artists to interact with the site, both with human and non-human inhabitants. Following an open call - with more than 50 applicants - the site has seen five different artists that took part in a residency program embodying the role of the garden caretakers.

These garden caretakers brought their unique artistic practice and interpretation of the role to the place in Herlev, each emphasising participation, citizen involvement, and multispecies interactions. Their artistic activities served as a tool for sensing and exploring the site, rather than merely creating art objects. 

The artists worked from the temporary construction of a ‘droplet’, a greenhouse, that had been built next to the former asphalt factory, anchoring the activities to a specific place and time while also being a learning space where participants encountered the artistic processes.

The site has chosen the principles of aesthetics, biodiversity, belonging, and movement. Collaborating with artists is in line with the principle of aesthetics. The artists were chosen of place, relational aesthetics, participatory practices, and site-specific approaches, which are integral to the site’s vision. However, the end goal of these artistic works was not aesthetic in the sense of an artwork found in a museum. Instead, the aesthetics lie embedded in the process itself – the exploration and transformation they initiate within the site and among the people participating in the artistic process.

Aligned with the second principle of biodiversity, the site adopted a multi-species perspective in its approach. The artists they engage predominantly work with natural and found materials, prioritising minimal environmental impact and striving for a harmonious relationship with their surroundings. Their methodologies are particularly centred on fostering deeper attentiveness and awareness of the place among stakeholders. This involved encouraging participants to spend time outdoors, cultivating attentiveness to the local multispecies ecosystem, and facilitating sensory experiences that immerse individuals in the natural environment.

Aligned with the third principle of belonging, the artists foster a strong sense of connection and belonging between participants and the site. This initiative extends to engaging local institutions to further solidify community ties. The practices employed are inherently site-specific, involving hands-on interactions with natural materials, local species, and the stories of the site. Moreover, they are designed to be inclusive and participatory, encouraging active engagement from all participants to cultivate a sense of awareness and belonging. 

What is particularly intriguing is the artists’ interaction with local stakeholders, notably the children from the nearby kindergarten, who started to warmly greet and wave at the artists as they passed by. Being physically present at the site was a precondition for this and was considered really important.

Finally, the site embraces the principle of movement. On the one hand, the principle of movement informs the artistic approaches employed, which are designed to move participants’ attention and awareness to seldom-explored realms, encouraging them to notice often-overlooked beings, move at a slower pace, gaze upward, gaze downwards, and pay attention to details. These practices aimed to ignite curiosity and evoke emotional responses, encouraging individuals to explore and move through the space with intention and curiosity.

On the other hand, the principle of movement was interpreted as transforming the community and fostering new approaches and connections within it. This notion aims to make the outcomes of the artistic activities accessible to everyone in a democratic manner.

Garden Caretaker Artistic Practice Residency

• Helene Johanne Christensen, Creative and poetic writing, April 11-24th 2023
  
• Georg Jagunov, Multidisciplinary, installations and living sculptures, August 6-20th 2023.
  
• Arendse Krabbe, Multidisciplinary, sound, collected objects and ‘listening situations’ September 11-24th 2023
  
• Davide Ronco, Ceramic artist, sculpture and rammed earth October 23rd- November 2023. 
  
• Daily Fiction with Tora Balslev and Felia Gram-Hassen, Performance, dance and sound, February 19th - March 3rd 2024.

The first artist, Helene Johanne Christensen - an author and poet, conducted workshops in April 2023, focusing on her method of mindfulness. She explored how text and writing can serve as tools to enhance and expand participants’ awareness of the natural world.

The second artist, Georg Jagunov's - a multidisciplinary artist specialising in living sculpture and performance, took part in his residency in August.

He focussed on exploring the deep history of the site through walk’n’talk sessions, and collecting materials found in the area, such as stones, he created new narratives about the site. He also manipulated these elements, employing techniques like engraving markings into the stones, before reintegrating them into the landscape. 

The resulting artefacts were intended to spark curiosity and speculation among their origin and meaning among future discoverers.

The third artist, Visual artist Arendse Krabbe who inhabited the site in September, created immersive listening experiences by curating environments that invited participants to engage with various objects producing intriguing sounds. Participants were encouraged to immerse themselves in these sounds, fostering an emotional connection and deeper engagement with their surroundings.

The fourth artist, Ceramicist and sculptor Davide Ronco specialises in ceramics and works primarily with natural, locally-sourced clay and soil to craft his artworks. His residency involved a series of workshops that aimed at co-creating a perishable artwork in collaboration with children from the local kindergarten.

Over a few weeks, the children were invited into the droplet to mould bricks from rammed earth. In the end, they used them to set up a temporary installation that naturally decomposes over time, returning to the earth from which it originated.

Story

First, it's here - then it's gone... Perishable artwork, as a contrast to man's claim on the land: At a meadow beside a construction site in Herlev, DK, artist Davide Ronco creates a temporary artwork from bricks moulded using local soil, challenging the permanence of human architecture. As the structure crumbles over time, it symbolizes nature's reclamation of land. A fleeting art project that questions our relationship with the Earth. Go to the article

The fifth and final Garden Caretaker, Daily Fiction with Tora Balslev and Felia Gram-Hanssen - a performance duo specialising in body and landscape interaction, undertook their residency titled ‘Daily Fiction’ from February to March 2024.

During their residency, they curated participatory audio walks and organised a film screening for university students and construction workers at the site. Additionally, they orchestrated a dance and performance event on the construction ground.

Story

Connected in the same room between concrete and linden trees: Out of the spring haze, the mistletoe emerges. On a sound walk with the final Garden Caretaker in Herlev, Denmark. See the photos and read the article

Through the course of the project, the site had several key learnings: First, having a well-defined framework from the beginning was instrumental in guiding the project’s direction and ensuring that all artistic interventions aligned with the overarching goals. 

Second, initial difficulties in scheduling workshops and engaging participants were countered by building relationships and collaborations with local institutions. Being physically present in the area was crucial for building these relationships and connections to the local community. The partnerships that were formed increased workshop participation and extended the use of artistic tools and methods beyond the project, enriching the practices of local stakeholders within their own contexts. 

Third, inviting people to hands-on, tangible initiatives where they had to do something rather than merely think sparked curiosity and fostered engagement that was deemed important. For this, a good knowledge about the desired target group and their needs was considered important so that the activities could be shaped accordingly. 

Fourth, the site has observed that artists play an important role as ‘resonance creators’, facilitating pure and emotionally evocative experiences through their artistic practices. These experiences inspire connections among participants and the place, fostering a sense of inspiration and engagement. Testimonials from participants also revealed that the artistic interventions led to feelings of peace and deep connection to the place. 

However, the two-week residency periods were deemed too short to fully achieve the full desired impact. Extending these periods in future iterations is expected to enhance the project’s outcomes even more.

Territorial Transformation Plan

With the Garden Caretaker project In Herlev, one of the most promising results has been the interdisciplinary collaboration between artists, local residents and institutions. This led to a deeper understanding of both the importance of nature and the sense of place. 

The transformation therefore concerns how we relate to a place, and how the value of sensuous practices can be activated in the construction sector and open up towards an improved understanding of the value that this innovative approach brings through supporting a sense of belonging and caring for a place with reduced maintenance cost and an improved experience of lived quality as key benefits. 

To be able to fully operate with this understanding, a model for integrating a sensitive approach to urban development - a design proposal based on a regenerative approach - will be further developed through implementing the learnings from Desire in new and different contexts and with involvement of different types of stakeholders. 

To achieve this, the territorial transformation plan unfolds around three deeply interconnected outcome elements and learnings from Desire:

• A tested and validated Garden Caretaker approach and artistic practice

• A need for an update of the registration methods which forms a key element in how architects, developers and construction professionals access a place in relation to development

• The ‘Being of Place’ as a methodology which feeds from the sensuous practices obtained from experimenting with the Garden Caretaker approach.

The Long-Term Vision

The long-term vision is to create urban areas that can adapt to future environmental and social challenges. This includes the continued integration of nature into urban development, where elements like old trees are preserved as part of the city's identity. 

The vision is that residents will take responsibility for their surroundings and be active participants in ensuring that the area remains sustainable, as their knowledge and relationship to place, the different species and each other, has been strengthened and deepened through the aesthetic processes they have been engaged in. 

This vision grows from the Garden Caretaker approach and the Being of Place methodology, that foster belonging to place and an improved sense of interdependencies between different species inhabiting the same place, through a bodily and sensuous exploration of the place and all the co-inhabitants. 

By engaging the Garden Caretaker as a semi-permanent role and character within local neighbourhoods, the relationship to a place will be nurtured and supported to mutual benefit of both humans and non-humans. 

It is described by leading scientists within the field, that humans will not fight for something that they do not know, so this ‘knowing’ becomes a central aspect to this project. It is at the core of The Garden Caretaker to stimulate a sense of belonging and bodily knowing of place and all its species, as a strategy for social and biological regeneration and resilience.