barbara grotowska prints: The Garden

Under the motto of the "Sun King", the Garden is captured as soon as our gaze falls upon it. The phenomenon of seeing is the same as possession: when we see something, simultaneously we feel that we gain it. Yet what happens when the image confronts us with an absence, loss, and emptiness, when the subject itself is precisely the essence of being absent? Once the phenomenon of seeing is linked to the question of being, what happens when, while looking, we feel the absence – when to see means to lose? The Greek word "paradeios" had two senses. The first was "garden." Only later in the Greek translation of the Old Testament did the word start to mean "the gardens of Eden," "the paradise." Through the Greeks, "hortus conclusus" came into the European tradition – a "limited walled garden" which came to symbolize paradise.
When living in a Christian culture, it is difficult not to think about Paradise references even for a moment. The Paradise Garden works in the human consciousness as a place in which people once lived, but have since lost access to. The Garden became a symbol not only of eternal happiness, but also of humankind’s inexpressible longing and melancholia.