Soft Gardens

About

A subtle humming guides you. You pass through the narrow passage and land in the middle of an unexpected scene. It's as if you're sliding down a rabbit hole or descending into a mystical underwater cave.
The search for a narrative about another place has brought you here. Is it a place of dreams or is it the setting from a story entrusted to you? Whatever it is, you are here now.

The light has a warm temperature that permeates the entire room. You hear voices... the voices of the stones, the voices of the weather, and the voices of the water. The room speaks in several languages. The inhabitants of this new environment begin to gather. Clouds of flowers and branches swirl above you; a thick atmosphere of flora fills the room. It smells of damp earth and organic matter. Some smells are familiar, others not. The floor is soft; you can lie down on it.
Pillow creatures are there to support your weight with their soft limbs. Friendly creatures wave to you with their mechanical arms. They mean well. You can close your eyes and dream beyond the dream. You find yourself in a liminal landscape. Here, anything is possible, and everything is constantly changing.

Welcome to Soft Gardens , a project by Bureau of Transitioning Landscapes and Kallia Kefala.

The Bureau of Transitioning Landscapes is an artistic research initiated by Kim Bode that explores landscapes not only as material and physical spaces, but also as collective ideas and political terrain. It functions as a platform for collaboration and exchange, connecting artistic research and practice. Kallia Kefala is participating as part of the exhibition Soft Gardens - a multimedia installation comprising textile, sculptural, floral, and audio works.

In Soft Gardens, the notion of landscape is recontextualized and expanded. It encompasses not only physical or geographical spaces, but also inner landscapes. These inner landscapes are materialized as spatial and sound installations, inviting visitors to experience them as queer utopian places in the making.

The two rooms of the project space sign,CIAT are transformed into a cozy, yet also eerie ''nature'' - an open and inviting space. Visitors can rest there, concentrate on their sensory perceptions, and engage with emerging thoughts and impulses. The installation functions as a place of retreat, a space for imagination and exchange, which visitors can actively participate in. Textile sculptures invite visitors to linger, ceramic and straw-metal sculptures can be touched and made to resonate, and plant sculptures can be experienced through touch and smell. The lighting and sound levels are regulated so that the space can be experienced with minimal stimulation.

The installation questions the categorical divisions between nature and culture, human and non-human, real space and inner space, linear time and queer time, the private and the public. These binaries blur, dissolving images of the familiar world and creating space for new possibilities of coexistence.

The resulting landscapes reflect collective desires and political aspirations for alternative forms of coexistence. They serve as blueprints for a world of queer, cross-species coexistence and mutual support.