Gate
Hello Nature! Combo Competitions Entry
One day, a fifty-year-old student of enlightenment said to his Teacher: I have studied the School of thought since I was a little boy, but one thing in it I cannot understand. According to the teachings, even the grass and trees will become enlightened. To me, this seems very strange.
Of what use is it to discuss how grass and trees become enlightened? – asked the Teacher.
The question is how you yourself can become so. Have you ever considered that?
I never thought of it in that way. – marveled the old man.
Then go home and think it over – ended the Teacher.
Ever since, the mankind has a dual relationship with the nature. Our bodies, as the natural constructs and a result of the evolution processes, are placed within an immensely complex system that allows their biological existence. On the other hand, our civilization tries to conquer the nature; either directly by occupying it and using it, or intellectually, by trying to define it, explain it, and name it.
Everything we do to define the nature, has never been anything but a projection of our inner selves on the things and events in our environment. By trying to explain the nature, we are actually only presenting the state of our inner nature.
One visits the Gate to reconnect with the nature, by learning their own nature. Visitors go to the Gate in order to learn how to let the nature be, so that they can also be. It provides a unique experience of coexistence, open to interpretation and discovery.
Well connected with the walking paths through the stunning landscape, the Gate offers itself as a goal and the beginning of a journey.
It is a porous ring circumscribing an empty space in the middle, which represents the abstract nature of the world, the otherness left to its own devices in absence of the words that are supposed to capture it in a definition.
The openings in the structure frame the view, helping the visitors to focus their thoughts, by concentrating on a specific detail. Various spaces within the ring offer various conditions for learning how to get in touch with (your inner) nature. There are spaces for individual contemplation, group meetings, lectures, performance arts and/or exhibitions. The individual spaces are introverted, opened towards the landscape, towards the patio or completely extroverted and accessible from both directions.
The Gate is a threshold: the last point on a journey out of the civilization, and a first point of the journey towards the actual life with the nature.
Nataša Prica & Petar Bojović
Work done for Hello Nature Competition (Combo Competitions)
Bern, 30. 11. 2014
