Biennale Gherdëina 10, (Future) Paradise Gardens, curated by Samuel Leuenberger, opens this month. The 10th edition of the biennale invites us into terrains both tender and turbulent—where gardens, and their often fragile or absent ecosystems, become symbols of survival, love, and the possibility of a more just future. Initially conceived as a reflection on the garden as a site of care and cultivation, the exhibition has evolved into a more open and expansive field where many artists move beyond the garden’s leitmotif, engaging with broader cultural imaginaries that orbit questions of nature and our human presence within it.
Largely composed of newly commissioned works, the exhibition is inspired from a series of conceptual chapters. These explore the garden as both a constructed and contested space—at times present, at times absent—through symbolic, metaphorical, and emotional lenses. The themes unfold across notions of “Commoning’, “Divine Love and Growth,” the “Violent Garden,” “Queer Ecology,” the “Botanical,” and “Gardens as Spaces for Reflection and Poetry,” while also addressing industrial and extractive forces that stand in tension with these ideas.
Participating artists are: Chanelle Adams, Andrius Arutiunian, Jacopo Belloni, Alice Bucknell, Leonardo Bürgi Tenorio, Giulia Cenci, Sandra Knecht, Dorota Gawęda & Eglė Kulbokaitė, Judith Neunhäuserer, Walter Niedermayr, Masatoshi Noguchi, Gabriela Oberkofler, Lydia Ourahmane, Gregor Prugger & Leonora Prugger, Ana Prvački, Augustas Serapinas, Bas Smets + Eliane Le Roux, Bosco Sodi, Constantin Thun, Kelly Tissot, Álvaro Urbano, Yuyan Wang, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, and Pedro Abu Wirz & Michael Marder.
The opening on Saturday, May 30 begins at 10am. in front of Sala Trenker in Ortisei with a welcome and institutional presentation, followed by a curator-led tour. At 1pm., Piazza S. Antonio hosts a culinary intervention by Sandra Knecht and Leonardo Bürgi Tenorio. In the afternoon, the programme continues in St. Cristina at 3pm. with a guided tour, accompanied by a performance by Ana Prvački, Applied Honey Proverbs. A folkloric dip into proverbs from around the world, where ecology meets language and wisdom accumulates in drip. The day proceeds with a tour to Mount Juac from 6–8pm. and concludes with a 10th anniversary celebration at the Juac hut from 8–10pm. with music, food & drinks.
On Sunday, May 31 at 10:30am., the biennial hosts its Vernissage for Kids, presenting a workshop by and with Pedro Wirz and Michael Marder titled ‘Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Us’.
Throughout the summer, (Future) Paradise Gardens invites visitors to engage with contemporary artworks as tools for personal exploration and reflection on our socio-ecological future. The public programme will include guided tours, workshops, studio visits, hikes, talks, and performances.