incomplete landscape I

Schutz, Kontrolle und Abwehr – a reconstruction

Ein schöner Garten ist ein effectiver Garten.

During the GDR there were three reasons which made it attractive to run an allotment garden efficiently:

Because of a lack of variety in the selection of fruit and vegetables, it was interesting to grow for one’s own use and to expand the range of food on offer domestically. Secondly there was a guaranteed buy up of overproduction from the state and, last but not least, there was barter specific products from the garden for goods that were not readily available in shops.

However, the productive garden has lost its importance in the allotment nowadays. At the same time, in a lot of gardens unnatural looking plastic objects which I could not interpret attracted my attention during my fieldtrips. Were these relics from former times which were previously used in bigger amounts or were these objects from our times?

My questions led me to the state archives where I could look through old historical material about allotment gardens, and also to garden centers and to internet sites to find out about the history, background and the use of these objects:

As in former times plastic structures were mainly used to increase production, in our times plastic is used against fear and powerlessness: Plastic film in all kind of shapes and sizes should be the solution for any problem: Control, protection and defense is promised in the battle against the wild, untamed natural world.

The idea was born to build an installation on site - an efficient and productive garden which guaranteed 100% control, protection and defence.