eleni danesi
IMAGINARY
GARDENS
anatomies
how to become a GARDEN
Imaginary Gardens Anatomies is a poetic and experiential approach that explores the body as a living, breathing garden—a fertile ground of transformation, sensory intelligence, and ecological imagination. Conceived during the artist residency "Picturing Democracy" by URBAN NATION in Berlin, the project began as a fictional school of embodied learning with and through Nature that drew inspiration from the philosophical Garden of Epicurus and diverse cultural imaginaries of gardens across time. In this context, gardens are not merely metaphors but vital spaces- peaceful sanctuaries—spaces for contemplation, reconnection, and neurological regeneration that "take their space"—shaping bodies, thoughts, and futures.
Imaginary plants: Eleni Danesi & DALL·E 2, 2022 ©
Within my practice, gardens reappear in many forms: anatomical, architectural, somatic, emotional. They serve as symbolic tools to reimagine societal configurations—inviting us to consider alternative ways of living where environments and other species are not resources, but essential actors in our shared life continuum. Through installations, performative enactivism, and multisensory interventions, Imaginary Gardens Anatomies opens space for synesthetic perception and invites visitors to experience entangled time, expanded space, and the fragile beauty of interdependence.
microscopic exploration into the structure of plants and insects
Photo: Martin Hochreiter
AI-generated images working on text fabrication to design images that reflect the notion of BODYSCAPES.
Bodyscapes are interwoven and interact with bodies and landscapes in ways that blur the boundaries and blend the characteristics of one with the other.
Landscapes live in our bodies, and we live in them. They inhabit us in the same way we inhabit them and experience them through our sensorimotor interactions.
With these images, I wanted to create poetic representations of this deep relationship that shapes our perception of our bodies and the surroundings we navigate. At the same time, it was an exploration of the environment of AI technology and a study of the imagination-technology interaction: how my imaginative perception of my bodily interaction with spaces can be translated to image through text-engineering.
