Reclaiming the Street: The Expanded Garden

The current model of urbanisation has blurred any line between cities and natural spaces. It has created a continuum that expands from the city centre to infinity. This denies urban dwellers access to nature, affecting their health and wellbeing. In response, artists have invented strategies to depict these areas and make them more friendly and habitable. This article presents the work of Lara Almarcegui and Xavier Ribas about resistance strategies on the outskirts of big European cities along with my own, The Expanded Garden (2017), a moving image installation that reflects on the contact with nature of those living on the periphery.

Keywords: art and women can be instrumental in proposing utopian horizons for the socio-economic and cultural transformation necessary to achieve ecological equality and justice ; Because love becomes political when directed at the landscape, understanding our responsibility in our neighbourhood can lead us to be responsible citizens of the world ; care ; community ; Eva Marín ; Feminising the landscape as a community good and transferring this love for it to new generations is crucial to bring about the cultural change needed to face the major challenge of transforming the planet into a more liveable place ; Green Guerrilla ; In this process of challenging urban development, art can play an active role questioning the damage we are inflicting and propose alternative and more responsible ways of relating with the periphery ; Lara Almarcegui ; periphery ; plants ; To trigger a more balanced and greener landscape on the periphery, we need to change landscape policies in a participative and socially consensual manner ; We urgently need to bring into focus the damage we are inflicting and rethink periphery areas as a space for change ; women ; Xavier Ribas