Mateusz Salwa

The aim of the article is to analyse the metaphor of the garden as a metaphor which allows one to give an account of the conditions of the Earth subject to human actions and –more importantly –to sketch a utopian project of going beyond the Anthropocene. A new understanding of the garden modifies the traditional view of it as a paradise, where a harmony between humans and nature reigns. Today, gardens are often approached as places of cooperation, negotiation as well as of tensions and conflicts among human beings and other-than-human beings, that is as places where numerous relationships create a human and other-than-human community. The analyses will start with an interpretation of Alan Sonfist’s Time Landscape (1978–), a public park in Manhattan that was conceived of as a reconstruction of the local precolonial landscape and at the same time as its monument. Sonfist’s work is a good illustration of how the metaphor of the garden is nowadays interpreted and –I contend –it may be also seen as a monument of the Anthropocene.

The author analyses the significance of plants cultivated on balconies for thinking about urban green spaces. Balcony gardens are presented as spaces where plants are arranged and cultivated by individuals on a daily basis in a mainly unprofessional way. Balcony gardens are discussed as vernacular gardens that are both private and as such they reflect the intentions and tastes of their owners and public insofar as they belong to the public space together with the balconies supporting them. The author contends that the balcony garden is worth considering as a useful point of reference whenever vernacular practices aimed at enhancing green urban spaces are at stake. The reason is that tensions that make balcony gardens so particular are characteristic of urban greenery. As a result, one has to accept that it is not possible to impose any norms on vernacular green urban practices and that different people’s approaches to plants (reluctance included) have to be recognized and acknowledged. The balcony garden may also be treated as a sort of paradigmatic example of how plants may be treated as non-human dwellers. The argumentation is structured around the presentation of the “Warsaw in flowers and greenery” contest which was established in mid 1930s and then re-established in mid 1980s and whose aim is to promote cultivation of flowers and plants on window sills, balconies, in courtyards and front yards.

* Artykuł jest rezultatem pracy naukowej finansowanej w ramach programu Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego pod nazwą „Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki” w latach 2016–2019 (0059/NPRH4/H2b/83/2016).