Silvia Cini. Plastic Oplalà

Details of the garden - 3D botanical garden

For the department Cini envisions the project PlasticOplalà 1, 2, 3, a series of site-specific interventions whose idea is to create a small botanical garden outside of the pavilion, in the semi-abandoned garden of the pediatrics department. The project included a botanical garden made with more species of plants that create a path of discovery and a playground in addiction to the classic outdoor games of all parks (slide, swing, etc...). The garden could have been enjoyed as a playground, a botanical garden (each plant was supposed to be illustrated with a short tagline and a fairy tale coming from its country of origin) and as a game itself, as it was structured in six colored slots (the first player throws a cube and is assigned a color and he can move on the platform of the corresponding color only if he can name a plant or flower that corresponds to an area of the new platform) in which there are no winners, but only the pleasure of knowledge and sharing.
The garden is furthermore divided into three areas: the garden of scents and smells, the Garden of flavors, the tropical garden. On the basis of this proposal, Cini imagines three different developments of the project based on the idea of zooming and progressive enlargement from the children's rooms, games room and outside of the hospital.

PlasticOplalà#1 is constituted by a 3D software that makes it possible to access and fly over the garden itself and is conceived almost as video game. The user / player can in fact set up the point of view of his eyes and move through the garden or fly over it as if he was on board of an helicopter.

The installation PlasticOplalà#2, exhibited at the GAM, is conceived for the game room of the oncology department. It is made of seven inflatable cubes coated with canvas with which children can play. Each cube has a different color linked to those of the platforms in the garden and on each one there is an image of two plants, the board with technical information and the tale related to the country of origin of the plant depicted.

PlasticOplalà#3 is finally a box made of colored canvas with a panoramic image of the future garden pictured on the cover. Inside there are seven soft small cubes, a reduction in scale of those made for the playroom. The box is created for the patients’ rooms, especially for children in the post- transplant who spend a period of time in forced isolation under aseptic conditions. The box, which was supposed to be placed inside the cabinets, is an invitation to play only if the child wishes, while waiting to go out and play in the real garden.
The project is part of the artistic production of Silvia Cini since it is open to contexts different from the conventional ones, and it is in relation with a social context as in the case of a precedent work realized for the exhibition Empowerment Italy (curated by Marco Scotini, Villa Croce e Villa Bombrini, Genoa, 2004) described by Cini in the interview attached (Intervista a Silvia Cini, Dialoghi, a cura di UnDo.net.pdf) that was devoted to the topic of breastfeeding.