À procura dos Jardins Efémeros: contributos para uma abordagem sociológica da utopia das artes

Abstract

Utopia is created in space, materializing itself in a place where aesthetics, artistic and social inventiveness can be expressed. From this spatial imbrication of utopia emerges an [in]tangible idea of garden, as a sublime ordering place of wild nature, a powerful transformer towards alternative imaginary futures. Therefore, it is important to explore utopian spaces, once resistant and transformative, such as the case we analyze here: the art festival Jardins Efémeros [Ephemeral Gardens], held in the Portuguese city of Viseu. From the intensive study of the case (through interviews, document analysis and observation), we aim to demonstrate how the utopian ideology associated with an artistic notion of garden potentiates social transformations.