Arketipos: I Maestri del Paesaggio – International Meeting of the Landscape and Garden

In the Odyssey, Homer describes the garden of Alcinous using the characteristics of a locus amoenus, an idealized place of comfort and pleasure, in the midst of the beauty of nature, in which part of the Odyssey takes place. Often this place is defined as a garden because part of its plants and flowers are cultivated, implying man’s intervention.

The objective of the Arketipos Association is to promote, inform and enhance the culture of natural landscapes as well as those modified by human intervention. Together with the city of Bergamo, the Association is organizing I Maestri del Paesaggio – International Meeting of the Landscape and Garden.

The event will take place in Bergamo from September 7^th through 22^nd, and includes two days of meetings with the most famous landscape architects and garden designers from around the world, as well as workshops, seminars, and cocktail parties in stunning settings. The event will also feature cultural and food and wine events, exhibitions and competitions, all with nature as the common denominator.

The event will focus on “sustainable growth”, or the protection and enhancement of natural resources for environmental, economic, social and institutional development. Clearly, it is an endeavor that involves all of us, and crosses many disciplines.

For the third consecutive year, The Green Square will be set up in Piazza Vecchia in the Upper City, which has become a sort of symbol for the event.

Piazza Vecchia, one of Italy’s most picturesque squares, will be transformed, for the duration of the event, into an outdoor living space, adorned in green. This year, as part of Bergamo’s bid to become the 2019 European Capital of Culture, Palazzo Suardi, headquarters of the European Cultural Embassy, will also be converted into a garden.

This year, the squares’ designers were inspired by the plain of Lombardy and its waterways. These waterways have historically been a significant part of the daily lives of local inhabitants, who built numerous canals to irrigate the land. The second inspiration is the woods, represented by hornbeams of various sizes. These two themes will be linked not just metaphorically; rather, there will be a red pathway through the squares to guide the visitor. Plants that require little maintenance were used and benches have been placed along the route to allow visitors to enjoy the scenery.

“Feel the Water” is the central theme of the International Meeting of the Landscape and Garden, which is linked to the theme of the 2015 Milan Expo “Nourish the Planet”. Its goal is to explore ways in which we can more intelligently use the resources that nature makes available to us to improve our lives and those of future generations.

The event is open to everyone, and is for everyone, because it is only through becoming more aware of nature can we learn to use its benefits more carefully and respectfully.