Der Garten ist leer. (The garden is vacant.)
An Embodied Field Work Laboratory:
The fieldwork project Der Garten ist leer takes place at the abandoned urban garden, Vulkan 604 located at the Allotment Garden Vulkan Zurich-Altstetten in Switzerland. The project has two in-situ Phases followed by Phase 3 of processing the collected “data”. Of course so – called “vacant” garden isn’t really vacant. The garden Vulkan 604 got abandoned 2 years ago and is now full of nonhuman life-forms but people say “This is an empty garden”. Many of the plants, often labeled as “weedy” (Unkraut) emerge in the heavily human-impacted land of all the years of gardening. My fieldwork research method, I call Ethnochoreobotanography, is anchored on participation and observation through “thinking with the body”. In this embodied field work research I’m collecting data about plants, ecological patterns and plant/human relationships of past, present and future (hi)stories. The question I ask: Is Vulkan 604 in the process of becoming it’s own garden? Can the spontaneous plants “de-colonize” themselves from their (hi)stories. Could we call that process “auto-rewilding” (Autonome-Renaturierung)? What the abandoned garden has to tell us about land and plant/human relations and the celebration of “scenarios” without a script, a place for the “imperfect” form? Can we find “the spontaneous urban plants agency” and “their power” and give them a voice. During the time I’m in the Vulcan 604 – the vacant garden is my artist studio. The spontaneous urban plants are my collaborators, performers and mentors of the “embodied data” collection.
PHASE 1 Residency: Vulkan 604: Der Garten ist leer.
August 27 – September 4, 2018
Few Field Work Photographic Notes



Vulcan 604 garden land was not rented out the last 2 years because all its 120 neighborhood gardens will need to be cleared by end of October 31st by the garden tenants. The “120 garden areal” land will be giving back to the city and makes space for an Ice Hockey Stadium.











What are my anticipation of research for Phase 2 Residency at the Vulkan garden(s) from October 23 – November 4, 2018 ?

PHASE 2 Residency Der Garten ist leer.: Atemlos dem Schrei entgegen
October 22 – November 4, 2018
Few Field Work Photographic Notes












