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A Seedling Place

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Placemaking Events

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Vertical gardens installation in Synergasias Street

On July 8th the neighbours and the visitors of the festival attended the inauguration of the Vertical Gardens installation at Synergasias Street in Kaimakli. The installation, created in the first yea

Posted on 22/11/29

Adopt a Plant

In April 2022,  the residents of Kaimakli were invited to adopt 100 plants and trees, which were offered by the Forest Department of Cyprus. Two months later, in July 2022, within the framework o

Posted on 22/11/29

ASeedlingPlace* Digital Repository

Urban Gorillas have launched, a Digital Planting Repository called ASeedlingPlace*! ASeedlingPlace* inspires to create a digital community of urban visionaries that aim to positively transform thei

Posted on 21/12/03

ASeedlingPlace* Initiative in Venice Biennale

The SeedlingPlace* collaborative activity connects the A-Place partnership to the  Urban Gorillas installation in the Cyprus Pavilion - la Biennale di Venezia 2021 . Partners from four

Posted on 21/12/03

Venice Biennale

ASeedlingPlace in the Venice Biennale, is inspired by an installation of thea structure Kaimakli Gardens that was fabricated and installed in September 2020 in Kaimakli, Nicosia within the framework o

Posted on 21/10/19

Greening the city workshops

In the framework of the Urban Entrepreneurship summer workshop organised by Urban Gorillas and the Centre for Entrepreneurship of the Cyprus University two afternoon workshops were dedicated to develo

Posted on 21/10/19

Final Event: Urban Entrepreneurship Workshop

The final event took place at the rooftop terrace of the municipal building of Nicosia on July 9 2021. The project Grandyna which resulted out of the Greening the city workshops was presented in th

Posted on 21/07/09

The new world of hyperlocal food, Benjamin Greene

On July 6 2021, Benjamin Greene from Imaginary Farms, gave an online lecture open to the public with the title “The new world of hyperlocal Food”. The lecture was attended by students of t

Posted on 21/07/06

Guided Walk

Urban Gorillas and Students of the Summer course: Urban Entrepreneurship - Opportunities in times of uncertainty  took part in two guided visits in relation to Greening strategies in the city and

Posted on 21/07/03

Urban Playground, Toyo University, Japan

Urban Playground was a design thinking workshop led by Urban Gorillas for the CreaToyo event of Toyo University. The Workshop was part of a series of learning events in the context of the current Euro

Posted on 21/02/05

“A Seedling Place” is an action that aspires to transform places and empower communities through collective actions of planting. The project will take place at the Venice Biennale and actions across the A-Place network. It is inspired by the installation Vertical Gardens which was realized in September 2020 in Kaimakli, Nicosia within the framework of A-Place. The action in Kaimakli proposed the insertion of a structure in the church square that responded to the new realities of social distancing and the need to redefine the role of public space in its capacity to connect communities.The structure acted as a trigger for a socially diverse neighbourhood to reimagine their public spaces, starting from the simple act of planting and tending a garden. The same idea continues with the installation presented at the Cyprus national Pavilion which acts as a scaffolding to a collective garden where visitors participate by planting, tending and growing seeds and cuttings. 

The project expands in a digital format called, #ASeedlingPlace*, which acts as a digital repository for a series of activities organised by Urban Gorillas and the extended A-Place partnership.  

A-Place partners are invited to participate in parallel actions related to the idea of community building through the act of planting. The digital repository, will take on the role of a collective garden, recording activities such as communal planting, guided walks with the topic of gardens, oral history recordings, guerrilla gardening actions, and the creation of artworks. This digital garden, just like the one in Venice, is perceived as an open process, acting as a framework triggering activities by communities and individuals.

 

 

Activities

“A Seedling Place” will present the installation within the Venice Biennale, but also initiate planting actions and a digital repository which will act as a framework for a series of actions to take place developing on the idea of planting, and gardening as a place for coming together both physically as well as virtually. These activities may include: 

- Events at the Venice Biennale 

An installation in the Cyprus Pavillion envisions an open process in constant progress, where visitors are invited to participate by planting seeds, transferring cuttings, tending and growing new plants in a collective garden. The structure acts as a scaffolding, a facilitator for co-creation while also extending its physicality by providing seeds for visitors and inviting them to plant elsewhere, expanding it in both space and time. 

- Workshops with students of the University of Cyprus.

Workshops focusing on the importance of planting as a way of nurturing sustainable urban entrepreneurs 

As part of the Urban Entrepreneurship workshop organised by Urban Gorillas at the University of Cyprus, two workshops will run with the thematic of Greening the city.  In this context, the workshops will explore the potential of generating sustainable cities through social entrepreneurship.  

- Mapping of community initiatives taking place in Europe and Japan 

A series of community planting activities are taking place within the partnership and our extended network. ” A Seedling Place” will collect, and highlight activities, creating a network of knowhow and organisations (the A-Place partnership, Multikulti, Gardens of the Future, 100,000 trees, local school organisations) 

- Events taking place in the A-Place partner cities 

Activities to be organized by A-Place partners in their respective locations, related to the theme of planting and seedling. 

- Transformation of an underused site through planting activities 

Planting activities will take place in order to transform underutilised public areas. These activities will openly invite community members for participation.  

- Open to the public lectures  

Lectures will be organised online and onsite where invited specialists will discuss planting and greening strategies in cities in connection to community building and the future of cities.  

 

 

Objectives

In accordance with the objectives of A-Place, the purpose of the planned activities will be: 

  • To highlight creative placemaking practices which bring new insights to the local actors about the places they inhabit. The open call will act as a trigger for communities and individuals to envision new gardens and new opportunities for planting in their neighbourhood. It will create an open platform for creative engagement for community members to initiate and record acts of planting, but also document stories and information about plants and places. The collective process engages people, connects one to another and educates communities. 
  • To create cross-disciplinary learning spaces. Community members become the important actors in their places as they will plant, tend but also enrich knowledge about plants in different forms: recording stories, producing installations and exchanges between participants.  Participants will also come in exchange in a digital space with other people undertaking similar actions.  
  • To explore the role and exploit the potential of networked artistic practices by mapping works by various organisations and involving community members and artists on a larger global scale. 
  • To exploit the capacities of digital technologies through the creation of a digital repository which will take the form of a digital garden.

 

Links

Contact

Veronika Antoniou

urbangorillas.ngo@gmail.com

Teresa Tourvas  

ttourvas@icloud.com

Participants

Participants and informal groups: The A-Place network, Individuals and organised communities such as schools, Shelter for the Elderly, migrant organisations. 

Organisations: 100.000 Trees, Gardens of the Future, MultiKulti, EKYSI, Kaimakli Elementary School, Larnaka Act, 

Support: Nicosia Municipality, The Cyprus Ministry of Culture, Cyprus Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.