SOURCE: Télam
Among colored lights, smoke effects, mapping projections and instrumental, classical and tango music, the Carlos Thays Botanical Garden in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo will become from this Saturday, and during all the nights of July, an open-air museum, which dialogues with the flora, sculptures and architecture of the space, as part of the light and immersive exhibition "Secret Garden", a labyrinthine tour that aims to discover the secrets of nature when the sun goes down.
While the Botanical Garden will continue to operate during the day, from Tuesdays to Sundays until 6 pm with free admission, with its more than 900 species of plants and 2,000 specimens of trees, during the nights of July -from 6.30 pm- you can visit this proposal -a custom imported from several European gardens- that literally illuminates from unknown optics the botanical heritage of this traditional Buenos Aires promenade.
It is a visually stunning and very photographable tour through 17 light installations deployed throughout the park, an extensive itinerary neatly marked with arrows and signs that anticipate the name of each of these "stops" -such as "Saturnalia" or "Avenue of the Stars"- that proposes to walk through the entire garden at night in the middle of winter, so you should be very warm and wear comfortable shoes to cope elegantly with the darkness and walking on the pebbles of the trails. The key to this show in winter is that it gets dark much earlier than at any other time of the year.
"The idea initially came from the Kew Garden (London Botanic Gardens), which has 400 years of history. In winter there was always less affluence and it occurred to them to do something to highlight the beauty of the space and attract the public at a time that is not usual, in winter and at night, which in the northern hemisphere is Christmas. We did several installations in different parts of Spain with great success and we were looking for a space in Latin America. We knew that Argentina has an enormous cultural richness but when I saw this Garden I found it impressive. We have made an effort to highlight parks that are not half as beautiful as this one. So you are going to see something quite special that we have designed especially for this space", said to Télam the Spanish Nicolás Renna, manager director of Proactiv Entertainment, the company that made a strategic alliance with the Argentine production company 6 Pasos to make the show a reality.
Enthusiastic, Renna said that 30,000 tickets have already been sold in advance to visit the exhibition that articulates artistic light installations, videos, mappings, giant figures, projections, LED light installations, neon and interactive lights that give shape to the 17 immersive, visual and auditory posts, a walk in which you can hear from "Por una cabeza" by Carlos Gardel to a symphony by Beethoven according to each season.
Life, nature, biodiversity, space, music, love, reflection, thoughts, stars and art are the themes that structure this tour, which adapts its content to the local identity and the environment of the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, inspired by immersive exhibitions that have been held for years in cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt and Barcelona, under the concept of "Christmas Garden".
"A warm welcome awaits visitors sprouting from the earth, a heaven of floral buds that fill the air with their ethereal charm. Shrouded in mystery, they embrace the light that inhabits them. A sigh of life, a welcome dance in nature", reads the first point of the tour, "Life and Nature", which invites you to venture into a tunnel surrounded by greenery and branches, with suspended lamps crowning the walk, just before reading, in large purple neon letters, the name of the proposal "Secret Garden".
Once inside, a fabulous mapping appears on the facade of the central building, which proposes to rescue the history of the creator of this green space, the French architect and landscaper Carlos Thays, who arrived in the country for a one-year project but soon fell in love and ended up staying for more than four decades. A figure who promoted the yerba mate industry as we know it, as well as designing some of the most beautiful gardens in the country during the so-called "belle epoque", determined to make this a city full of squares and promenades, convinced that "the spirit rests" when contemplating the beauty of nature, as the story celebrates.
The ethereal marble sculpture "Ondina del Plata", by Argentine Lucio Correa Morales, right in the middle of the fountain known as La Primavera, appears surrounded by immense flowers and species of luminous butterflies, like small sculptures of light, in a harmony that seeks to accentuate what that space of the garden usually offers. There are trees illuminated from their tops, along the promenade, and also a giant moon, behind hundreds of glittering stars that shine, as part of the installation "Saturnalia".
It is valid to say that the signs that present each of the installations are poorly lit and, in the middle of the night, it is difficult to read them, which does not detract from the charm and majesty displayed by each of the works and their play of light, as in the case of the immense sculpture of a "Heart", which beats in the middle of the road, or the ideal moment for selfie as is the balcony of the greenhouse, with its vines of luminous roses, which have decided to baptize "Juliet", in honor of the protagonist of the famous play by Shakespeare.
After crossing the "Avenue of Stars", the video mapping projection on the "Meteorological Column", a white marble work that is part of the architectural heritage of the promenade -a gift from the Austro-Hungarian community- becomes captivating, where a rain dance, with its lightning and the sound of thunder, is followed by images of a burning and captivating fire.
Balada para un loco" is played as we cross a corridor of triangular figures illuminated in red, a visual effect that suggests a nod to typical Rio de la Plata music, until we reach an area of the venue filled with illuminated signs installed on the green, with allusions to "Love", "I love you", "Je T'aime" or "Che, me gustas", as if they had been handwritten, with different calligraphy and various luminous colors.
There is a show of lasers that, with the colors of the rainbow, and accompanied by smoke effects, generate silhouettes and shapes in the air of another section of the route, called "Rainbow", in addition to an inflatable sculpture, illuminated inside, which emulates the "Thinker" by Auguste Rodin and symphonies of classical music that generate the sensation of movement in some of the sculptures of the promenade, a series made in marble by the Italian artist Leone Tommasi (1903-1965), inspired by the German composer's Pastoral Symphony, to reach the end of the two-kilometer route that exits on the Syrian Arab Republic Street.
"We hope to be able to repeat it. The idea is that this same concept, under the umbrella of Secret Garden, will serve us to change the facilities, using the Botanical Garden of Buenos Aires during the winters and hopefully we can do it for many years. May it become a tradition and be here to stay", said the Spaniard Nicolás Renna.
SOURCE: https://www.telam.com.ar/notas/202306/632645-secret-garden-jardin-botanico.html