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In Hesse's gardens: on compost, art and awareness

Saturday 29 March 2025 10:30
Sunday 1 February 2026 18:20

Fondazione Hermann Hesse 2 Ra Cürta Collina d'Oro, TI, 6926 Svizzera (map)

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Temporary exhibition

29 March 2025 – 1 February 2026 · Museo Hermann Hesse Montagnola

Hermann Hesse was not only one of the most important German-language writers of the 20th century, but also a passionate gardener. Throughout his life, working in the garden was an important counterbalance to his writing and at the same time a source of literary inspiration. Whether by Lake Constance, in Bern or in Ticino – he devotedly created gardens wherever he lived, which were far more than just places of retreat. Based on Hesse's texts, the exhibition In Hesse's gardens: on compost, art and awareness takes us right up to the present day, when the issues of closeness to nature, responsibility and limited resources are becoming ever more urgent in light of climate change.

The exhibition guides visitors through the garden spaces designed and described by the writer and sheds light on the connection between Hesse's literary work and his gardening practice. In his letters, he reflects on the hardships of gardening, but also on the pleasure it gave him. The exhibition explores the various facets of his gardens as spaces for personal transformation, reflection and political discourse. Through a sensory approach, the exhibition invites visitors to discover Hesse's gardens as a microcosm in which the small and everyday takes on a larger dimension. The garden thus becomes a setting for culture and creativity, for growth and change. Between flowerbeds, compost heaps and fruit trees, Hesse found answers to the big questions of life.

Curators: Marcel Henry & Céline Burget

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Opening: Saturday, March 29, 2025, from 4:30 p.m. in Sala Boccadoro

Program
The opening will kick off with a conversation moderated by journalist Natascha Fioretti, between the curators Céline Burget and Marcel Henry, on the background of the exhibition, followed by a short reading by Alberto Nessi, winner of the 2016 Swiss Grand Prix Literatur Svizzero, from his latest poetry collection Il mondo salvato dalle piante. Next on the program are Mansoureh Aalaii and Onzgi's performance The Garden on the nearby Piazzetta. To conclude, the public is invited for a convivial aperitif.

Prior to the opening, a lecture by Volker Michels on the theme “Garden” in German, titled Wie eine verlorene Heimat - Hermann Hesses Freude am Garten, also in Sala Boccadoro, is scheduled at 3:30 p.m. (in german language).

The performance
The performance The Garden connects the process of writing with the movement of life: each step leaves a trace, each leaf a moment of orientation. With each seed planted, the garden creates a future, just as the writer traces a path with each word. Thoughts take root, words become leaves, poetry unfolds like a landscape. The blank page is a space of infinite possibilities. Language, at once familiar and foreign, emerges from the depths of the garden. And the words invite resistance and humanity.

Mansoureh Aalaii is a physician, choreographer and author (www.stateofthebody.org). Antoine de Perrot, aka Onzgi, is an architect, urban planner and visual artist (www.onzgi.com). Both teach at the Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio.