InGarden Festival is a 3-day celebration of nature and art. The event takes place in green areas located in the center of Lublin - in Poland. The main attraction of the event is the exhibition of several show gardens, created by outstanding artists. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a clear need for green spaces. Our event is a response to this need. By combining elements of the natural environment, gardening, adaptation to climate change, art and high aesthetics, we have created the InGarden.
In Garden Festival is the first presentation of garden art and aesthetics of space in Poland. The event takes place in summer time at the area of the historic and revitalization Brewery in Lublin. The festival took place in 2021 and in 2022.
The Garden and Public Space Art Festival attracts landscape designers, developers, companies and local governments representatives from all over the country. It’s a beauty, nature and art enthusiasts meeting space and lovers of beauty, art and environmental promotion.
The festival is open and free - any interested person can take part in it.Sshow gardens are being built as part of the festival. Each garden has been designed by a different creator - landscape architect, artist or architect. Each garden is a symbol of certain processes that take place in our everyday life and have environmental impact.
The In Garden Festival has a wide program aimed at various audiences - children, adults and seniors. The main attraction of the festival is an exhibition of show gardens, an art exhibition, discussion panels, art workshops and piano recitals in green areas.
The event is our response to the growing need for a community to be with nature and art. One of the goals of the festival is to provide festival participants with an opportunity to get in touch with nature, which they forget every day.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
We described the main goals of the project in this way:
1. to draw attention to the global climate change and to show the possibility of adaptation of urban space with the use of aesthetics
2.building and integrating the community of garden creators and, more broadly, landscape architects with the communities of artists, in order to increase the aesthetics of the space and introduction big circular economy in process create green areas
3. creating a meeting and dialogue place for creators in the field of architecture, landscape architecture, garden art, artists, industrial designers, art historians, planners, town planners, conservators and other circles participating in the process of creating the art of gardens and good space
4. creating a meeting place for garden lovers, garden owners, nature lovers, people interested in the sustainable development of space and city-forming activities, art experts and everyone interested in the history and art of gardens
5.building and strengthening the garden tradition in Poland and give her new rules in eductaion including circular economy
6. Raising the aesthetic competences of recipients
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
Key project goals in terms of aesthetics and quality:
1. to show thematic gardens as a form of visual art in space. The gardens were available for several weeks after the festival ended. Some of them are a permanent element of the landscaping of the historic brewery.
2. providing recipients of the task with the possibility of communing with art exhibited in green areas
3. creating a culture of using the garden
4. dissemination of aesthetic values and inclusion of ecological aspects in thinking about the garden
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
One of the goals of organizing the festival was to integrate experts and enthusiasts at the beginner level. The event was open to all interested people, regardless of origin, gender, age, education or skin color. The organizing team of the festival consisted of men and women. We invited representatives of various environments to cooperate in the creation of show gardens.
Participants could take part in all the events accompanying the festival. The festival area was adapted to the participation of people with disabilities. Deaf and deaf people could take part in the substantive part of the event - the most important parts of the festival were translated directly into sign language. Additionally, the video materials from the festival were translated into sign language.
The promotion of the festival was carried out with the use of simple-to-understand messages. We know that not all recipients of the event use social media, which is why the In Garden promotion was also carried out outside the Internet.
Participation in the event was free of charge. The area of festival is free.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary
The In Garden Festival combines three dimensions:
1) sustainability - all show gardens have been created using natural elements of the terrain. No elements of the natural environment have been destroyed for the purpose of creating the gardens.
Additionally, there was a nature walk in the area surrounding the festival area. As part of the walk, participants had the opportunity to learn about various species of animals and plants under the supervision of an expert.
2) aesthetics - Festival participants had the opportunity to experience art and nature on many levels. Show gardens have been created with the highest level of care and aesthetics. An important addition to the festival space was an art exhibition, which presented works mainly by local artists. All works have been integrated into green areas.3
3) social inclusion - Participants could take an active part in all events. After the end of the three-day festival, the gardens could be admired for several consecutive days.Volunteers were involved in the whole process.
The theme of the second edition of the festival was EKLAWA. The term Enclave should be understood as an area of one type surrounded by an area of a different nature. Enclaves are historical and natural heritage. How it fits perfectly with the needs of today's man, who is experienced by social isolation, but also literally refers to the place of the festival - the 19th century buildings, once a monastery, and later the Lublin brewery, today constitute such an enclave in the center of Lublin. The brewery is a unique combination of industrial architecture and green areas, what's more, the location in the very center of the city gives it additional values, appreciated by both residents and tourists visiting Lublin. The high awareness of the user of the area - Perła Brewery, has influenced the space revitalization works undertaken for several years, and what is important - the place lives with the rhythm of Lublin culinary events and offers its activities in the field of broadly understood culture of spending free time.
Please also explain the benefits that derived from their involvement.
The event was open to the public. Participants could take part in all accompanying events free of charge. During thematic walks, participants could talk to the creators of the gardens or the authors of sculptures. Workshops addressed to various age groups were an important element of the program. We have prepared workshops for children, adults and seniors. The workshops concerned, for example, the construction of mini rain gardens, the creation of green roofs, urban beekeeping.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on everyone's life. Many restrictions have contributed to the isolation of a man from another person, but also from public space or the natural environment. The In Garden Festival is a response to the natural human need for communing with nature and art. The exhibition gardens exhibition and the art exhibition as well as the entire surroundings of the festival gave the opportunity to be with certain values and with other people, scienty, aesthitic and reducing the carbon footprint to protect the climate.
The second aspect of global importance is climate change, the effects of which we feel more and more acutely. Two thematic gardens created as part of the festival concern proposals for adaptation to climate change. The first one concerns sudden and heavy rains and droughts, our response to these problems was the "irrigation" theme garden. The second problem was related to the urban space and a large concreted area.
Apart from ideological phenomena, the festival presents and shows technical solutions for water retention, green roofs and green walls, and the planting of large trees.
The In Garden Festival is the first event of this kind in Poland.
Our event is an interdisciplinary event that combines elements of various fields. As a whole, the events combined elements of architecture, landscape architecture, gardening, water retention, biologically active surfaces, art and also classical music.
The program of the event, apart from the exhibition gardens exhibition, also includes discussion panels, during which participants can gain knowledge on, for example, adaptation to climate change, responsible design in landscape architecture or urban gardening.
The event was very positively received by the participants of the event. Piano concerts in green areas turned out to be a particularly interesting point of the program.
Please provide clear documentation, communication of methodology and principles in this context.
During the festival, participants could take part in discussion panels during which experts discussed key issues related to, for example, environmental protection. Each of the participants could actively participate in the panel. Additionally, there were thematic workshops on building green roofs and creating retention gardens.
The official catalog is the summary of the festival.
@Krajobrazy Foundation, 2021
Content licensed to the European Union.