Chaumont-sur-Loire Festival

The Edible Garden is a nostalgic memory of the tiny Soviet dacha plots where without much advanced agricultural technologies people gardened not just for fun, but to survive through the years of deficit. It’s been quite a while since survival gardening has been abandoned at least around our country’s capital and the vegetable beds and greenhouses have mostly been replaced with lawns and flowers. Yet we see that this type of gardening will make a comeback both due to an urge to grow your own organic vegetables and the looming economic crisis. The old dacha plots may be overgrown now and taken over by nature, but they are a distant memory that is suddenly very alive. In our garden five glasshouses are partially filled with vegetables, and partially taken over by the Russian meadow planting. All the plants belong to plant communities of Nikolo-Lenivets Landart Park 250 km South of Moscow. The matrix of blue moorgrass Molinia caerulea is filled with forbs such as Verbascum, Salvia, Geraniums, Trifolium, Achillea, Agrimonia, etc. The meadow is dotted with masses of Cosmos bipinnatus – a beloved annual Soviet dacha plant. The greenhouses are overtaken by the meadow, but in some of them you can still see raspberries or beans, or a random tomato plant. Weathered furniture pieces are also of the same period. The vintage chairs made in Checkoslovakia invite you to sit down and feel the nature taking over.

A unique sound installation created by Russian sound artist Vladislav Sorokin also is a mix of an old dacha sounds.