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EDEN’S GARDEN, Paulo Rosa

Hello everyone! Since 2011 I have a drawer project that, only now, I felt ready to put into practice. Garden of Eden is the place described in the Bible as the starting point of God’s creation, where the Tree of Life is and also where Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

In Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the peripheral regions it is common to see abandoned furniture in places that the city hall will collect as garbage. I have observed that the great majority of this furniture is sofas.

The sofas are objects that at a certain moment were desired and admired as something that would transform an environment, providing comfort and the possibility to gather either a family or friends in intimate moments of celebration, relaxation or even procreation, because they can be a sofa bed.

Finding unfair the way they are disposed of these objects that were a great desire and of much transformation and now abject, being repulsive for the way they are (torn, musty, colorless and misaligned) I decided to give them the possibility of rescuing the beauty of once, becoming the Garden of Eden. In the sequence of photos it is possible to observe the transformation with the flowers.

The original project is to distribute among the abandoned sofas seeds of flowers and herbs so that they germinate similar to a garden. The reflection serves for the discarding, what we are today what we will be tomorrow through aging and maturation. Will we have the respect we think we deserve or is the disposal a fact? Will the family base support us in this moment?

6 Comments
  1. Avatar photo
    Nazar Niazmetov

    Hi, Paulo,
    Nice to see your post again!

    1. Paulo Carvalho Ferreira

      Thanks! I will be more present from now on.

  2. Avatar photo
    Laurence de Valmy

    Hi Paulo, very interesting thoughts about our society and of time passing by.
    I felt the same way when giving away toys that were once cherished by my kids before becoming simple objects.

    1. Paulo Carvalho Ferreira

      Hello! Yes, the burden of feeling transforms the object into something that transcends the object itself. The sofa is just a means for reflection, just like the toy. For those who have experienced the period before the digital, have more sensitivity to these issues in my point of view. Now, imagine your grandparents or parents tearing up a photo of someone. This simple act was certainly loaded with feelings. But deleting a photo from a smartphone file is not at this level of feeling. It is something ordinary.

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    Crystal Marshall

    Very interesting post. The pictures and description help to tie things together. I like the idea of the sofa being redeemed object brought back to life despite it being discarded and forgotten. Also reminds me of another biblical parable where the nation of Israel is pictured as a discarded baby in an open field until God turns her into a beautiful bride. It’s interesting the context of using plants to symbolize restoration.

  4. Paulo Carvalho Ferreira

    Thanks for the Crystal comment!

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