Unpredictable Architectures: The Aesthetics and Politics of Gardening in Latin America

Considered either as material landscapes or symbols, gardens are usually thought of as spaces where nature is enclosed and controlled. They continue to live behind walls that separate them from the wild and under the watchful eye of designers, whether it be the divine creator of the “Garden of Eden” or landscape architects employed as public servants. Literary critics and art scholars have engaged with gardens as allegorical representations of unity and solace, and urban historians have considered their role in city planning as both recreational and hygienic spaces, often at the expense of underserved populations. But as professional and amateur horticulturists know too well, gardens are, above all, unpredictable: too much or too little rain will spoil them; transplants might grow differently in new, unknown geographies; and prelapsarian Western ideals (including early modern notions of the ‘New World’ and current representations of the Amazon as untouched) conceal forms of racialized violence that remain to be uncovered. Still, as the re-emergence of community gardens now shows across the world, gardens can also be forms of political rebellion against exploitative land uses, as well as spaces of resistance and care. Gardens are not only unpredictable but unexpected: they might suddenly emerge where we less expect them to be. In other words, they are bound to surprise us. 
In a time of rapid degradation of green spaces and massive biodiversity loss, Unpredictable Architectures: The Aesthetics and Politics of Gardening in Latin America seeks to reflect on the cultural and environmental relevance of the vegetal world through spatial practices and their representation in Latin America from the colonial period to the present. Understood broadly as any space in which the human and the vegetable coexist harmoniously and in tension, this panel seeks to redefine the aesthetic and political implications of gardening practices and their cultural representation. It aims to bring together contributions from different fields, such as literary and cultural studies, landscape history, architecture, and geography, to trace historical threads and examine contemporary practices leading to new definitions of gardens within Latin America's social, political, and racial coordinates.