Garden Futures is an exhibition exploring the history and future of the garden, seen not only as a place of refuge and personal creativity but also as a space for experimenting with biodiversity, social justice, and solutions for a sustainable future.
The exhibition was curated by the Italian design studio FormaFantasma and was previously showcased at the Vitra Design Museum before arriving in Rotterdam. It features works by artists such as Roberto Burle Marx, Jamaica Kincaid, Mien Ruys, Piet Oudolf, and Derek Jarman.
The Garden as Refuge and Experimentation
A garden is a miniature world. Whether it’s a small plot of land tended with care, a space for art, or a glimpse of untamed nature, the garden tells a story about the people who create it and their relationship with nature. Sometimes, it reflects the cultures and eras it belongs to.
For designers and artists, a garden is also a laboratory where biodiversity, social justice, and sustainable futures are explored and put into practice—a place of promise and hope.
Garden Futures, opening at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam on Saturday, November 16, traces the evolution of our relationship with gardens. The exhibition explores the origins of the contemporary garden and seeks new models, drawing on the gardens of designers and artists such as Roberto Burle Marx, Jamaica Kincaid, Mien Ruys, Piet Oudolf, and Derek Jarman.
In Garden Futures, visitors can connect with the idea of the garden as a personal refuge, where individuals and nature coexist harmoniously in a space of personal expression.
But there’s more. Gardens also reflect political and commercial agendas that shape their aesthetics and design choices. The exhibition invites us to consider who owns gardens, how much space is allocated to gardens in urban areas, the role of gardens as a form of self-sufficiency and food security, and the historical colonial trade of flowers and plants.
When we turn our attention to the design of objects and furniture, we might ask ourselves how gardening tool manufacturers and patio furniture makers influence our tastes.
Thus, beyond being an idyllic refuge, the garden is also a true testing ground for new ideas and experiments. Increasingly, gardens are being viewed as part of broader ecological systems rather than confined spaces. Designers and artists are experimenting within gardens to explore alternative solutions for biodiversity, social justice, and a sustainable future.
The exhibition showcases examples of vertical forests, community gardens, floating gardens, school gardens, rooftop greenhouses, food forests, urban farms, and forest gardens. It presents a range of possible solutions and sensitive, unconventional approaches to the concept of the garden.
Garden Futures is an exhibition developed in collaboration with the Vitra Design Museum and the Wüstenrot Foundation for Culture and Heritage. It was previously showcased at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
The original exhibition was curated by the Italian design studio Formafantasma. For the Dutch adaptation at the Nieuwe Instituut, co-curator Maria Heinrich and designer Frank Bruggeman expanded the exhibition with works from the archive of garden and landscape designer Michael van Gessel, as well as local and nature-inclusive projects.
Several examples from the city of Rotterdam are featured, including the garden district of Vreewijk, the wooded park on Brienenoord Island, the Wijktuin Ommoord community garden, the Hofbogenpark, and the New Garden.
Artist Ada Patterson created a site-specific artwork for this exhibition, offering a critical perspective on the colonial relationship between gardens and history in Rotterdam.
