Boklansering LATERNA: «Utopian Gardens»

«Utopian Gardens» is a collective documentation of the artist duo LATERNA’s project CoSA Garden // Pollinary Dances (2018–2022). It contains contributions from artists and partners who participated as well as invited guests and is a hybrid publication, a mixture of an artist’s book, an archive, and a space for ongoing reflection.

The intention of the project was originally to choreograph the installation and development of sister gardens in Oslo, Norway, and St. Petersburg, Russia. In Oslo, LATERNA worked closely with Black Box teater to create a vertical garden on an exterior wall. In St. Petersburg we partnered with the Museum of the St. Petersburg Avant-Garde to continue developing an existing garden with an artistic heritage extending back to the early 1900s. The duo wanted to explore how building and growing the two gardens could create movements both small and large, as part of a local and trans-national choreography – a pollinary dance.

A number of events and issues – the pandemic, bureaucratic hurdles in Oslo, uncertainty surrounding the future location of Black Box teater, and finally, war in Europe – prevented LATERNA from realizing the gardens as originally planned and forced them to pursue alternative artistic routes in order to continue their collaborations and the idea of sister gardens. This publication is one outcome of the way our process shapeshifted.

There will be conversation and performative sessions and serving of spagyric elixirs during the book launch!

Warm welcome!

CoSA Garden // Pollinary Dances is part of LATERNA’s long-term project CoSA – Concerning the Spiritual in Art (2017–2023).