A BOTANICAL GARDEN /
AN ARTISTIC-BOTANICAL PARK
On the 2021 equinox, which marks the end of winter and the beginning of the flower season, Usina Santa Terezinha was the stage for an artistic performance that drew attention to the power of cycles and transformations. There, under the soil that produced the most alcohol and sugar in Brazil in the 1950s, artist Denise Milan simulated the cooking of sugarcane juice in a “pot” dug into the ground until it turned into an edible crystal.
In the final act, the amber-colored crystallized sweet was served to the ants on a table filled with Brazilian crystals and stones that make up the work “Banquete da Terra”, signed by the São Paulo native artist. “They will feed on this sugar, taking it back to the earth. In order to survive, matter flows”, summarized Milan, telling us about the organic cycle, a metaphor for this place that lived through glorious times, went through decadence, and was reborn through art.
This is the purpose of the Usina de Arte Artistic-Botanical Park, to reconcile the dual role of a Botanical Garden and a contemporary art museum, which is the most visible part of the project. A former sugarcane mill that has acquired a new function as a space, with objectives focused on preserving and returning fauna and flora, through a permanent process of reforestation of its more than 40 hectares and also of the surrounding area. There are more than five thousand species, especially native ones, that have been planted since the beginning of the project, in 2015, restoring the local landscape.
As in the cycle taught by ants, the Usina returns to the soil that made possible achievements and developments its most intrinsic power as a landmark of its new moment. This time, with a landscape that is the frame for more than 50 works and artistic installations, such as that of Denise Milan. In addition to her, the Artistic-Botanical Park has in its collection important names from the regional, national and international artistic scene. Examples include Paulo Bruscky, Regina Silveira, José Rufino, Geórgia Kyriakakis, Marina Abramovic, Alfredo Jaar, Saint Clair Cemin, José Spaniol, Juliana Notari, Flávio Cerqueira, Bené Fonteles, Hugo França, Matheus Rocha Pitta, Marcelo Silveira, Liliane Dardot, Marcio Almeida, Frida Baranek, Júlio Villani, Iole de Freitas, Vanderley Lopes and a large cast. All in tune with the artistic curatorial proposal of promoting the ethnic and aesthetic identities of the cultural repertoire of our country and the history of the region in which it is located.
Amidst this territory of regeneration and beauty, the garden's greenhouse houses a delicate collection of orchids and plant species from the Atlantic Forest, cultivated in conditions that recreate, in part, the forest's original microclimate. The space offers a
sensorial and educational refuge, where humidity, shade and silence pave the way for contemplation of botanical diversity, reaffirming the Plant's commitment to environmental preservation and a profound reunion with the nature that once fully inhabited this land.
