An invitation taken up by the artist Maria Dompè to transform an inaccessible space, where there were already palm trees, into a site dedicated to the realization of a green culture.

A demanding challenge to give a new face to the park inside of the residence of Irene Brin at Sasso di Bordighera. A project that has been realized over several years with the collaboration of a committed and sensitive team.

A non-traditional garden, completely remodelled, modifying the walking areas by creating levels with tons of modulated earth at different heights with sculptural and landscaped sensitivity. A work of art of significant dimensions: gracefully placed stone sculptures of varying shapes, modelled land with a grass mantle, which together make up an oasis of elegant contemporary scenography, a tribute to Irene Brin, a writer and journalist of undisputable fascination and style.

A garden: history stratified in the stone, a collector who with art intends to leave an outline of a family history, a continuity of intent in respect to all that Irene Brin has established. A spiritual testimony to renew with energy.

Sasso di Bordighera: a unique place, a uniqueness that comes from the strong connection with its inhabitants, attentive defenders of a tradition of care for urban environments.

With a skill for synthesis and total respect for the historical traditions of the “green” and above all for the place, Dompè creates a modern interpretation of the park. Joining dry walls with antiques stones, artistic modelling of the land with a floral contamination, ancient trees with marble sculptures, designing a garden of incisive power and fluidity. Harmonious green paths and intimate spaces to pause and to experience the seductive powers and equilibrium of natural forms. Traces of past memories: the garden, as the family defined this space, has matured its cultural fruits transforming itself into a garden of the spirit.

Pierre

Sculptural works integrated in the garden:

With this work in Roman travertine, the artist Maria Dompè proposed the restoration of classical culture, filtered through the personal re-invention of a classical column, empty and divided into blocks which in turn are sectioned longitudinally. The fragments are connected by a rope and unfold with the elliptical modelling of the land. The base and the capital of the column give to the blocks placed on the land a compositional order and suggest a possibility of the reconstruction of architectural elements, always understood as a support: the column represents the axis of the construction, and links the diverse levels which guarantee solidity. The structure of the column itself suggests an ideal belonging to the dominant vegetal element on which it is based: an elliptical base, an ideal ocular form, an eye open on the captivating scenery of nature. A warning to human frailty which finds its exact collocation in a context where nature reverberates with its vigour, the primordial dominion over man.

Four cylindrical elements of travertine, with a rough surface like large rocks, alternate among the palm trees placed on a modelled green area which ideally unites them, creating an emotional viaticum connected to the sacredness of nature. Four symbolical “mandala”, instruments of antique knowledge intended to undertake a path of awareness inside of yourself, unified metaphorically by a green passage, at the beginning of those cognitive paths. The antique palm trees pruned and purified welcomes the stones with transcendent harmony: a restoration of ancestral natural equilibrium.

An image of strong meditative impact which re-enacts the relationship and contrast between stone and water, placed in a space that has been re-modelled and enriched by new plants. Slabs of broken travertine, posed, “float” with an unusual watery lightness. Reflected in more intense shades than the colour of the stone itself, alternative to the simplicity of the flowers of the water lily, combining the elements into a varied visual itinerary. The vertical travertine blocks create a sense of suspension, revealing the idea at the heart of the work: the maxim of Socrates: “know thyself.” An invitation to meditate, to pause, accompanied by the melody of nature: the croaking of a frog, of twilight becoming night, underscored by the temporal touches of the bell tower of the church of Sasso above the garden. Time without time where nature enlarges its infinite cycle.

A radical transformation of the landscape. The impenetrable “forest” of palm trees was uncovered, cleaned and pruned effectively modifying the levels, transforming the site and allowing for a single vision of the landscape. Stones to sit on, spaces to meditate, highlighting the stone walls, this section of the garden represents a happy synthesis between a traditional and a contemporary interpretation. The lawn and the palms dominate, the indigo tones of the plumbago and of the pink geraniums frame the unique movement of the green. Plastic forms alternate with antique stones and red porphyry marble, white and “peperino” marble. Stone and lawn, lawn and stone, modelled into fluid forms, alternating with careful research, creating harmonious curves. A depiction of water drops at the centre of the ancient irrigation well, underscoring the symbolism of water. Water is the “ab initio”, the vital breath; it represents the “prana,” gift of the sky and symbol of vitality and fecundity. Instrument of ritual purification, existing in the heart of wisdom as the source of knowledge. Cosmogonic symbol, source of spiritual regeneration, leading to eternity.

The land moves in waves, recalling the energy of water, designing a sea of green, introducing a dialectic with the nature of past memories. A kind of contemporary passage "béodo" that invokes the obsolete traditions and inaugurates the modern use of the nature’s spectacle.