2025 Villa Carlotta, Museum and Botanical Garden – Lake Como
Permanent Environmental Installation
Materials: shaped earth, corten steel slabs, pieces of tree bark, trees, climbers, various botanical species for alternating seasonal blooms
Dimensions: 57 x 23 x h 1.7 meters
During the opening evening, the female choir Hildegard von Bingen, founded and directed by Tiziana Fumagalli, performed pieces from the repertoire of the Saint.
The artist created two environmental art installations in the setting of Villa Carlotta, a remarkable historical residence where culture and nature interact with evocative cross-pollinations. Built starting in 1690 in a charming corner of Lake Como with a spectacular view, this villa museum is surrounded by a botanical garden of rare beauty. It is named after Princess Carlotta of Prussia, the last private owner before acquisition by the Italian state. The artistic event envisioned by Maria Dompè is dedicated to the young and unfortunate bride of Duke George II of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, who died in childbirth at just 23 years old — thus herself a symbol of a shattered destiny.
Two artistic works: one permanent (No. 71), in a redevelopment area adjacent to the forest, and one ephemeral (No. 70), inside the Museum in the Hall of Plaster Casts.
Curator Elena Di Raddo explains: “On the border with the woods, a permanent environmental intervention has been created — a garden by the artist, designed to change over time. With the technical collaboration of Villa Carlotta’s gardeners, coordinated by director Maria Angela Previtera, Maria Dompè conceived an intimate, enclosed flowering space within a light sculptural structure, evoking the baskets used to gather bulbs and cut flowers. Natural species were chosen carefully for their color and shape, as in a painting, but also in relation to the local area’s light and temperature conditions — a synthesis of art and science. The garden design aligns with the path that ascends from the ‘forest gate’ to the heights above the garden, following ancient trails established by the villa’s owners from the 18th to early 20th centuries, who shaped the park and planted centuries-old trees.
The environmental artwork is placed within a well-defined context, in full respect of the villa’s garden history — a place where harmony between man and nature is fully realized. The art of the garden has always intertwined aesthetics, nature, and space. It is also a metaphor for the human mind and soul in search of harmony, order, and beauty. The viewer is invited into a contemplative space — enveloping but not enclosing: the corten steel lines traced on the ground form a geometric layout reminiscent of a labyrinth, which, however, is open toward paths leading into the woods. The space invites a meditative pause, suspended between nature and artifice, to reflect on the message of the artwork. Maria Dompè’s intervention is based on these aspects: she created a garden to be both contemplated and crossed — a place of beauty and harmony, dedicated to all women denied the opportunity to chase their dreams. A labyrinth tending toward infinity, where one does not get lost, but finds oneself.”
Maria Dompè describes it as: “An offering of flowers to the forest, by women, for the emancipation of women and all of Nature. A work born from a stirring of the soul, a reaction of dismay, in support of Nature itself and especially of women, both wounded by a violent anthropocentric culture. A work-in-progress, designed to be permeated and completed by the natural evolution of plant growth, guided by the skilled hands of Villa Carlotta’s gardeners. A simple trace, a gentle imprint: respectful, just as the human footprint on the beauty of Creation should always be.”