Alchemilla’s
“Garden of Astrality” Wood Engravings

A: ‘In my ‘‘Garden of Astrality’’ project – which I invite you to see as mystagogical, hybrid and animistic – is based in total on the cosmological writings of Louis–Claude de Saint–Martin. Here I try to conceptualise the links that exist between the world beyond the human and our microcosm. More precisely, this name refers to those micro–organisms, those sub–visible beings that nourish the most vital functions of our bodies and that enter into a symbiotic relationship with us – without which we die. The fact that we cannot see them does not in any way mean that they do not exist; it’s just that we do not have the organ to perceive them. However, does this vast universe that is hiding from our view benefit from a concept of life and death?
On the other side the garden of astrality represents also a fictional garden of astrological plants. This cartography of the garden of astrological plants was a practice to try to grasp the contemporary and current attitudes towards planetary futures. It is not just a kind of disenchantment, but I do think we do operate and imagine futures in magical and mystical ways. Instead of freaking out about the current and threatening developments of the global climate, I am turning towards the most important aspects of a garden, meaning relationships, abundance and care.’