#award co Arts on the Streets 2019

A big strange fungus was deposited here. From this place, he observes the Botanical Gardens, as if borrowing the landscape for himself. Its name Vo means, in the language of the Kaingang Indians, “the noise of walking in the woods, a beating heart”. It is here to dialogue with this garden as well as to promote the public's dialogue with it.

By taking the landscape as an element of her existence, Vo invites the audience to establish possible links, observe similarities and dissonances with the garden so that, in the end, their relationship with this space also expands. The meaning of the title enhances this relationship. The Botanical Garden has beautiful trails, invites you to walk, pay attention to the sound of rustling trees, to the visual textures formed by groups of plants, to the smells that we can only find in environments like this.

Vo keeps a very special secret: he knows how to talk to plants. If you pay attention, you might be lucky to hear the way he talks! A few decades ago scientists and other researchers began to investigate whether plants can communicate, and they had surprising results. This is the case of Monica Gagliano, from the University of Western Australia, the German forest engineer Peter Wohlleben, the American Cleve Backster, author of The Secret Life of Plants, and so many other researchers who have understood that plants and entire forests are organisms endowed with capabilities that a hundred years ago we would not have conceived of it as true.

Vo is also a piece of art, produced by Chico Santos. We could say that it is a sculpture, or Media Art, or even say that this large cluster of small buildings does not look like a fungus! In this case, walk around Vo, be aware of your voice then walk along the trails. Perception requires involvement, and this artwork and the Botanical Garden are full of possibilities.

Wesley Stutz Text

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