Gärten der Sinne

Steel feeding manger filled with orchard grass positioned at ground level in a forest clearing.



  Environmental / Deutschland

Three-part work situated across a post-mining forest in Brandenburg, Niederlausitz (Lower Lusatia), Deutschland—a landscape strip-mined for brown coal until its natural systems collapsed. The site’s deeper history is rooted in early Slavic occupation.

     At ground level, a steel feeding manger is filled with orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata). Nine meters above, a second steel basket containing the same grass is suspended between trees. Plastic nursery containers from failed reforestation efforts remain scattered across the forest floor as permanent debris.

     The feeding structures reference the aurochs (Bos primigenius), the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle that appears in Niederlausitz’s heraldry. The last aurochs died in 1627. The ten-hectare site is designated Gärten der Sinne (Garden of the Senses). Visitors move between feeding structures built for an absent animal and residual plastic waste, within a landscape shaped by extraction. The elevated grass remains permanently out of reach.  ▧





Detail view of steel manger structure containing orchard grass among ferns and undergrowth.

Steel, Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata)
2 x 4 x 1 meters



Suspended steel basket containing orchard grass hanging between trees above the forest floor.

Steel, Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata)
1 meter wide, 9 meters above ground



Plastic nursery containers scattered across the forest floor among vegetation.

Plastic
Various, up to 5 meters in length



View upward toward the suspended steel basket containing orchard grass between trees.

Steel, Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata)
1 meter wide, 9 meters above ground



Plastic forms partially embedded in soil and plant growth on the forest floor.

Plastic
Various, up to 5 meters in length



Sunlit view of suspended orchard grass basket framed by surrounding trees.

Steel, Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata)
1 meter wide, 9 meters above ground



Elongated plastic forms arranged along uneven ground within the forest understory.

Plastic
Various, up to 5 meters in length



Suspended steel basket with dried orchard grass contrasted against dense green foliage.

Steel, Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata)
1 meter wide, 9 meters above ground



Curving plastic forms extending across a grassy clearing within the forest.

Gärten der Sinne, 1998
Edward Dormer

Public art, environmental work
Gehren (Heideblick), Brandenburg, Niederlausitz Deutschland
Symposium: Champs Magnétiques Künstlersymposium
Participating artists: Josina von der Boivin, Rainer Fest, Ulrich Krauss, Adolphe Lechtenberg, Inge Schmidt, Nadia Schmidt
Presented by: KunstNaturLandschaft Gärten der Sinne
Support: Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, District of Dahme-Spreewald