The black portion – the garden itself – is positioned roughly half a metre above the light-coloured surface. The black square is a very simple but very strong symbol, alluding to the ideas and art of the Russian painter Kazimir Malevich.

White and green flower gardens frame the outside perimeter. A white wooden wall marks the edge of the garden displaying Malevich quotes calling for contemplation in Russian, French, and English. One is on the outside – “I am the beginning of everything” – and another is on the garden side – “Neither Life, nor Death should remain because these two phenomenons don’t exist apart”.

Charcoal black is the colour of smouldering ruins. A garden consumed by fire is a very powerful image in and of itself that speaks of loss. And yet the garden is continually reborn in one form or another. Life carries the day, and the greater the initial sorrow, the higher the soul soars as that sorrow turns to joy.

Embers and ashes form the traces of what once stood on this spot and was then destroyed. But this is also fertile soil for new growth. After all, besides water and sun, these traces contain everything plants need to grow.

Over the course of the exhibition, from April to December, the “scorched” garden recovers and turns green. We imagined how life would gradually return to the scene of the conflagration and tried to recreate this renaissance both visually and emotionally. We gave nature a “helping hand” by planting and sowing appropriate plant species, but we did so little by little, giving visitors the impression that the garden sprung up all by itself, without any outside assistance

Photographing the garden’s development and posting the pictures online was a key component of our project, giving us an additional vantage point of perception.