Paisajes minimos [Minimal landscapes]

17 photographs, 2 diptychs, 2 poliptychs | 153x120 cm. each | C-Type prints under plexiglass | Edition of 3 +2P.A. | 2007-2010 The Minimal Landscapes series offers a conceptual survey of the symbolic value accorded to nature in the contemporary city. Advances in biotechnology and genetics recently applied in a range of life-science disciplines have enabled the workings of nature to be understood, regulated and even recreated. Efforts, both in biology and in agriculture, have focussed on developing controlled environments capable of generating optimal conditions for the development of each species, elaborating highly-sophisticated technology to allow complex artificial ecosystems to be built, maintained and regulated by computer. An increasing environmental awareness and the appeal of “the exotic” to urban residents have encouraged the integrated construction of such small, hermetically-sealed ecosystems (Minimal Landscapes) in the twenty-first century city. Elaborate constructs therefore become part of the daily life of its inhabitants, in which the garden, once built, soon assumes considerable significance, as a point of reference within the building and a landmark within the city. These environments are recognisable fragments of the natural landscape, spaces in which a habitat is recreated using technology, and is looked after as part of routine building maintenance. As natural décor, they reflect a concern for the environment that helps to build a more ecological, more inhabitable city, but can at the same time turn nature into just another consumer artefact, subject to the dictates of fashion. The series Minimal Landscapes records a number of new natural spaces the urban presence of which may be attributed to multiple, contradictory motives, ranging from real environmental commitment to greenwashing.