Curated by Lexing Zhang
El jardín de los milagros
Garden of Wonders
29 August – 15 October 2024
​LOY Contemporary Art Gallery presents a collective exhibit entitled “El jardín de los milagros” (Garden of Wonders) in Singapore. Featuring Bruno Fantelli, Bogdan Koshevoy, Cyril Debon, Carla Chan, Qian Lihuai and Marc Leschelier.
El jardín de los milagros invites visitors to rethink the role of the human in a multispecies world characterized by complex, multidirectional entanglements. The Diana Bellessi poem that gives the exhibition its title centers on one such entanglement: the flowering of a magnolia blossom planted by the poet’s mother—an act she calls “a communion with all that is beautiful in the world.” The spiritual connotation is significant. The white blossom is later compared to the Sacred Host, symbolizing the transubstantiated body of God: the flower imbued with anima—soul, breath, spirit, life.
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Animism—the belief that sentience pertains not only to humans but also to animals, plants, rocks, mountains, even manmade objects—is central to many indigenous cultures. It’s also prevalent in modern philosophies such as posthumanism and transhumanism, which have attempted to move away from an anthropocentric worldview to a more inclusive one. Such a reframing gains even more poignancy in our times, when geopolitical uncertainties, eco-anxiety, and the rise of AI contribute to a sense of estrangement from our environment. Yet, for many of the artists in this exhibition, this estrangement is also an opportunity to pay closer attention to the objects and natural elements around us.
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Cyril Debon’s series Baguette pas trop cuite, for instance, reimagines Manet’s iconic painting
Olympia, swapping out the reclining nude female figure for a French baguette, whereas the cabbages depicted in his series Chou fantaisie are not mere still-life subjects but are given anthropomorphic traits and foregrounded against backdrops typical of traditional landscape painting. This small yet humorous shift challenges the anthropocentric perspectives we are used to seeing in classical art. By recasting such quotidian objects in roles normally relegated to human protagonists, Debon’s paintings constitute a joyful celebration of non-human existences.
Shifting focus from the botanical to the mineral realm, Qian Lihuai’s intricately weaved bamboo scholar rock connects to a rich Eastern tradition. Qian Lihuai was born into a family of bamboo masters in Wuzhen,China, home to the art of bamboo weaving for 500 years. Gongshi or scholar’s rocks have long been cherished in China and Japan as both collectors’ art pieces and as an essential feature of public gardens. These asymmetrical, abstract stones conjure a range of symbolic images, including mountains, dragons, phoenixes, flowers, and humans. Yet they are not merely prized for their physicality and material characteristics, but also for their spiritual aspects: historically, they were viewed as miniature universes, offering scholars a meditative space to contemplate the vastness and intricacy of existence.
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​Despite being an architect by trade, Paris-based artist Marc Leschelier refers to his way of building and sculpting as “pre-architecture.” Leschelier’s work delves into the essence of construction – the anima – embracing a primal, instinctive approach that rejects the functionality typically associated with architecture. Paradoxically, his piece also serve a functional purpose, yet it is clear that his artistic vision prioritizes the physical qualities of the objects rather than the functional ones.​
Like Lihuai with his scholar’s rocks, Bruno Fantelli, a young Venetian painter graduated from the prestigious Venice Academy of Fine Arts and a finalist for the 21st Cairo Prize, also sees faces and creatures in everyday objects and recycled materials, but zooms in to a more microscopic scale. Ramping Monstrosities depicts a chaotic jumble of bizarre micro-organisms that seem to invade his paintings, a choice that seems particularly poignant in light of recent pandemics and environmental anxieties. At the same time, Fantelli’s ungainly atomic creations are constantly leaping beyond their boundaries, alternately fading into or brazenly jutting out of his dystopic backdrops. Where, he seems to ask, does the microorganism end and the human being?
Animists may believe physical objects are sentient, but what about technological artifacts? Carla Chan’s works would suggest the line between the material and the digital is not quite so clear. Her interactive piece Space Beyond utilizes blockchain technology to create a digital landscape that is altered based on real-time meteorological data. Despite its technological origins, Carla describes the NFT artwork as “pretty much a place, a void, a song.” This “place” might take on even more relevance in light of the climate crisis, as parts of today’s natural environment might one day only be visualized via such artworks.
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El jardín de los milagros nudges us to observe the environment we interact with on a daily basis and reflect on our relationship with nature, technology, and each other.​​
