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The Garden

In the fall of 2013, RAKE Exhibition Space invited twenty artists and architects into a tenement in Trondheim. The garden in an empty third-floor apartment turned the private spaces inside out.

By Per Kristian Nygård, artist
Published 12 Nov, 2013
 
Per Kristian Nygård's Baroque garden, on the third floor of the condemned building in Elgeseter gate 30B in Trondheim, expands on the moment before imminent collapse.

Per Kristian Nygård's Baroque garden, on the third floor of the condemned building in Elgeseter gate 30B in Trondheim, expands on the moment before imminent collapse.

The installation filled two rooms in the empty apartment. The original living room door was closed off, and a new opening cut through the kitchen cabinets. The materials for the garden structures were taken from elsewhere in the building. The matting protects the floor and allows air for the plants to circulate, while chicken wire keeps the banked earth in place.

The garden in the apartment in Elgeseter gate 30B refers to how the final phase of a historic period is often characterised by decadence and denial.

During the month of the exhibition "Constant. Decay", several hundred people, young and old, visited the installation on the third floor.

Installation in Elgeseter gate 30B, part of the exhibition “Constant. Decay”

The installation “The Garden” is a baroque garden constructed inside two rooms of an empty apartment on the third floor of a condemned building in Elgeseter gate in Trondheim, scheduled for demolition for many years. The work is a comment on how ideologies manifest themselves in the visual and architectonic expressions of our surroundings, and refers to the ideological vacuum that seems to appear just before something collapses. It can also be read as a comment on the role of the private dwelling as a status monument.

Facts:

Per Kristian Nygård is an artist. He graduated from the Malmö Art Academy in 2010. He lives in Trondheim and mostly works with prints and temporary sculpture projects. He has exhibited at Norske Grafikere, Æringur art festival in Iceland, Tegnerforbundet, Høstutstillingen and Norsk Skulpturbiennale.
www.perkristiannygaard.com

Assistants: Gardener Katrine Elise Harnes helped plan, lay out the garden and select and plant the plants. Håvard Stammnes, Markus Lantto, Hazel Barstow, Olia Sosnovskaya, Kjersti Bjørnevik, Trygve Ohren and Charlotte Rosstad helped install and remove the installation.

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