The “Beautiful” and the “Good” in Lisbon

Notes on horticultural parks, spontaneous gardens and artistic practices

Abstract

Plano Verde de Lisboa (Lisbon's Green Plan), conceived in the 1990s, proposes the physical articulation of the city's green areas dedicated to both leisure and agricultural production. In this context, horticultural parks are proposed. Alike “large projects” of the late 20^th century, they resort to formal uniformity in different contexts. Their implementation strategy involves the replacement of spontaneous gardens consolidated in expectant areas since the 1950s which, despite their decadent and labyrinthine features, are important for local communities. Questions arise from the experience of an artistic practice in these spontaneous territories: Given their aesthetic and social standards, hard to assimilate, do these gardens impose an unbearable presence of the “ugly” that might justify the imposition of the instituted “beautiful”? Do we see the aestheticization of life and the spectacularization of public space, to the detriment of what might be “good” from a social perspective? Guided by these questions, we propose an essay that aims to reflect on the urban operation of replacing gardens by parks, contemplating possible aesthetic and ethical judgments underlying these territories, as well as reflecting on the potentials and limits of the aforementioned artistic practice to shed light on these judgments and resulting conflicts. We rely on bibliographical reviews and on sensations and perceptions that emerged from experiences in these spaces. Despite different aesthetic-ethical judgments, we conclude that both, park and practice, lead to the aestheticization of the territory in different degrees and perspectives. This states the need for continuous examination of territory's means and purposes, along with current cultural discourses.