I giardini possibili

“The Possible Gardens” aims to create four new parks, four new public spaces that will take shape in the areas of Iglesias, Villamassargia, Domusnovas and Musei. Fifty children from the elementary schools of these towns are the driving force of the project: their dreams and desires shaped the gardens, making them unique.

The project “The Possible Gardens” is intended to foster participation and conscious transformation as an instrument of social cohesion, transmission of good practices, and education about sharing and tolerance: a vehicle of innovation and creativity, especially in rural areas afflicted by isolation, marginality and depopulation.

Thanks to the children’s ideas and collaborations with inhabitants, institutions and associations, peripheral areas became spaces of possibility, and therefore centers to experiment with strategies for sustainable transformation in a territory that is both fragile and wonderful, as is the Sulcis-Iglesiente.

In this process the young students were supported by a relay of artists from all over the world, in particular from countries that have important and consolidated immigrant communities in Sardinia, in order to focus on the complexity of cultural heritage present in Sardinia today.

Between November 2018 and February 2019 The Possible Gardens hosted Apparatus 22, a collective active between Bucharest and Brussels; Yassine Balbzioui, who has already collaborated with Cherimus in projects between Europe and Africa; Tian Dexi, a Paris-based artist, whose practice is based on recycling and reuse of common materials; and Amy Sow, artist and women’s rights activist based in Nouakchott.

At the same time, the ideas and the projects conceived by the children were studied by the architects and engineers of the Progetto Barega, experts in developing sustainable projects attentive to the recovery of the indigenous biodiversity. Progetto Barega also took care of the realization of the gardens   as well as the organization of training workshop on the maintenance of the green in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of Cagliari and Fo.Re.STAS.

More than twenty local partners, including associations representing Sulcis immigrants, are engaged in the activation of the gardens through workshops, events, and annual festivals in which the gardens and the children will be the protagonists. The project, written by Cherimus together with the lead association Casa Emmaus, is financed by Fondazione per i bambini.