On 3 and 4 September, the International festival of gardens and flowers “Garden City” was held at the Alye Parusa park. Among landscape design projects presented for a competition, there was a project by the Kozo-Polyansky Botanical Garden. Its exhibit, a spaceship named “Peter’s Cannon Ball”, received a gold medal in its nomination.
This large-scale project was designed by Svetlana Yunga and Albina Makarova from the “Vosaduli” artistic association. The capsule, which served as the foundation for the creative construction, was provided by Ilya Trushevsky, a design artist, and the JART Moscow art gallery. The team of the botanical garden decorated the structure with tropical plants.
Alexander Kushchenko from the “Old Panda” workshop provided technical support of the project and Sergei and Dmitry Chechenev were in charge of the sound. The inhabitants of the “new planet” at the festival were participants of the “Artway” dance and sports academy.
“We painted and decorated the capsule and created an unusual world. What we had in mind was that this spaceship from Earth landed on another planet and brought a special artefact which contains the experience and knowledge of many generations of the peoples of Russia,” said Svetlana Yunga.
The contestants had three days to put up the installation. During this time, the capsule was filled with water, supplemented with plants, and decorated with lighting. According to its creators, the “Peter’s Cannon Ball” project embodies the harmony of the biosphere and technosphere and popularises nature-like technologies.
“The floral design included tropical species from the collection of the main greenhouse and the production department. Our florists and agronomists, Daria Vashanova, Tatyana Derevyagina, Lubov Simonova, Galina Churikova, and Leonid Kupriyanov, grew these wonderful plants for our project. Ilya Kashirin, the leading engineer, developed and implemented the concept of the spaceship ladder,” said Lilia Lepyoshkina, the leading researcher of the VSU Botanical Garden.
A unique combination of high-tech themes and the floral decoration attracted many visitors to the Garden City festival. A dozen people queued to take a photo in front of the construction. This successful project gave the victory to the Botanical Garden. It also provided the opportunity to closely interact with the guests of the festival.
“The visitors absolutely loved it! It was so nice to hear that our project was one of the most beautiful and among the best. Such comments and the queue that built up in front of the exhibit made it clear that we touched the hearts of our guests,” said Svetlana Yunga.
The VSU Botanical Garden regularly takes part in the international festival of flowers and gardens “Garden City”. According to the staff, this is important for its development and popularisation:
“Such events are always relevant for us. This is an opportunity to show our creativity and to generate and implement ideas. The fact that our spaceship “Peter’s Cannon Ball” was highly appreciated is due to a long teamwork of employees of the Botanical Garden and various creative associations. I would like to thank those who showed their knowledge, experience, and imagination!” said Andrey Voronin, Director of the VSU Botanical Garden.
In the future, you will be able to see the spaceship in the VSU Botanical Garden. Soon, it will be exhibited there and will be open for visitors during excursions and other events.
