LIVING ART –
ARTISTS AND THEIR GARDENS

DOCUMENTARY / A 2007 / HD CAM / 45 & 52 MINUTES
A film by Peter Beringer

Synopsis

Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in Austria. There is hardly a person who does not do some gardening on weekends. Also many artists are inspired by gardens. For artist Ghada Amer, who lives in New York, her garden installations, even though they last for no longer than a season, are an important medium for conveying her ideas. Her works play with the motifs of the relationships between the sexes, fairytales and the biblical promise of paradise. The design of the garden is mostly a task assigned to the feminine gender, according to Ghada Amer. That femininity is also in some way related to the garden is also the conviction of architect Charles Jencks. He has been working on his spectacular “Garden of Cosmic Speculation” in the Scottish lowlands for the last 15 years. He has produced a mixture of philosophical, artistic and scientific ideas about nature. Japanese designer Kenzo Takada established himself in Paris in the 1970s with his own haute couture line. Today he resides in the heart of the French Capital in a renovated factory which integrates both western and Japanese ideas. The garden belongs to the layout as a piece of art. Expressionist painter Xenia Hausner at times goes to work on her unruly garden on the Austrian Traunsee lake even with a power saw. It has taken many years before her garden took on the shape that is anywhere near to what she envisioned.
The film paints a portrait of the four artists and their relationship to their gardens. They offer intimate insight into their personal sanctuary that is subject to constant change.

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