The model of project Architectural Grafts was done in 2009 for the 8th Sao Paulo Biennial (see aldo Grafts). The trunks of the model were made from the remains of the pruning of a hierba mala (Euphorbia cotinifolia L.), a bush which, when cut, releases a rich white sap. After the Biennial, the model stayed a couple of months at IAB-SP (the Brazilian Institute of Architects) until last month, when we finally brought it back.
It seems that these months at IAB worked as an incubator of decomposers: perhaps because they are so rich in sap that the stems of mala hierba have favoured the emergence of so many and so bizarre forms of fungi. As the original plant of Architectural Grafts – a pau-brasil (or Brazil wood) that, little by little, has been swallowing the washers and the screw that pierces it -, the model has also been changing, but from a dead plant. It is curious because Architectural Grafts is a project that uses plants not only alive, but dead plants as a ground for landscaping, such as dry brushes found in the garden that were painted magenta. Hence this musty model is a representation of the object and the process of the project, which does not cease to be a serendipitous analogy.
