Lothar Baumgarten
Theatrum Botanicum
Fondation Cartier pour l'art contmporain
Paris Le jardin
since spring 1995
It's magic. Simple and fascinating. Through the old trees which are surrounding the elegant glassbox leads only a small trail. You are spaced out, somewhere else. Not anymore in this elegant town, where most gardens are examples of coercing nature into geometric shapes. It looks so casual that you even start to feel the moss
under your feet, to hear the wind wispering with the leaves. Five or six low
rising steps in a wide bow span the backside of the building. It's a marvellous place to sit down to look through the building onto the street.
Everything seems to be so far away - quiet in every sense - you are not only
spaced out, you are out of time. Or better you are coming back to the time of
nature, to the time of the seasons. Like sitting in an old greek amphitheater,
you watch the drama of life. The traffic passing by, the visitors entering the
exhibition place, looking around, walking around. It reminds me of the idea of
an old greek grove, the area of a temple. Put away your weapons, calm down and
start to ... be. It's luxury, totally excessive nonsense but it reminds one of
a dream where art is something substantially important for a different kind of
society. Where....
--Rainald Schumacher
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