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Untitled 1974. Landscape treatment for desert area in the Murcia province, Spain Untitled (detail) 1974. Landscape treatment for desert area in the Murcia province, Spain
Leandro Silva Delgado
by Angel Kalenberg Et in Arcadia Ego There has always been a dichotomy between reason and nature. According to Western tradition nature must submit to man. The so-called French garden, the Versailles garden - the garden which is the symbol of the French absolutism of Louis XIV - the emblematic garden, organizes the landscape giving it a geometric characteristic so that the axis of the whole architectural ensemble on which it is based passes through the kingìs chambers (and there is yet more to their symbolism). Conversely, the Eastern tradition considers that a relationship between man and nature, including gardens (flowers too); this relationship has to be taken in consideration and will never follow a predictable pattern. The 18th century saw the beginning of the process which would give rise to modern domestic life. If in the past gardens had to be grand, with these new developments in lifestyle their grandeur was to aquire a familiar aspect. And the "English garden" would seek balance with its surroundings, taking into account the natural environment, causing the voluntary rationalism existent in the past to be replaced by a less aggressive empirical stance regarding environment. This theme exerted its influence on philosophers and authors like Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Goethe and would be the object of controversies. William Chambers, a landscaper of that era, wrote: "Landscapers are not only botanists, they are also painters and philosophers." Versailles would consider the changes in the English thinking and praxis and would adopt the necessary changes (cutting, among other things, the trees trimmed to specific shapes) thus determining progress. This imparted to the gardens a universal characteristic and would transform them in samples of diversity. However it is not surprising that Versailles eventually played the role of a landscape school. Leandro Silva Delgado graduated from Versailles and decided to live in Spain. There an intense and extensive contact with the Spanish-Arabian gardens in Granada and Seville allowed him to perceive the sensitive and aesthetic slant of the Al Andaluz gardens. Both the Versailles and the Spanish-Arabian artistic influences would lead to an approach which is far from the baroque style. However, Delgadoìs work does not ignore it and tends to get closer to rococo style (a term which etymologically comes from Rocalla). Silva Delgado avoids the long geometric lines in favor of short and sinuous lines that correspond to those found in nature thus stressing with slight gestures that which already exists. This intervention conveys poetic aspects by its acceptance of the peculiarities of nature. Since ancient Persia and the mythical suspended gardens of Babylon, gardens were always associated with Paradise (a plot of land, lost, retrieved). A sacred and Epicurean space, early gardens were considered as hortus conclusus, that is to say, as a shelter from a wild and threatening nature or as a compensation for its loss. The role of the current garden is to protect men from the aggression of modern cities which blunts their senses, thus placing them in a protective space: archaic, elegiac and timeless. It also reestablishes their relationship with the environment, thus stimulating all the senses (not only vision), imagination and dreams as they consider man as a whole within a world in which ecology is still an entelechy. The end of the 20th century puts in evidence the difficulty to find an accurate language and expression to define the contemporary garden. According to his master - Burle Marx - Silva Delgado is seeking this expression in Spain. The design of gardens and landscape require skills which are not usually used in other traditional professions. Architecture, agronomy, and engineering are professions which have aspects in common with landscaping, as do, to a certain extent, ballet and theater as well as geometry, botany and painting. But it is time which will have an unavoidable and mysterious influence on garden design. It all started with a task given to Silva Delgado to design a garden for blind people. A space prevailingly visual for people who cannot see. The final result was a topological space situated in time and with a visuality available for touch, smell and hearing. Therefore, Silva Delgado addressed the design in accordance with a theatrical approach, of placement on a stage, a ballet choreography rather than an architectural viewpoint. He carried out research to find out which flowers attracted the birds and butterflies of the region; the sounds produced by a waterfall on the foliage; which textures could identify paths even when they fork. In short, the garden as an open hortus, as a work subject to multiple interpretations, a work able to stimulate, to impress the senses, to orient, to create adequate conditions to perceive, overcoming blindness. Leandro da Silva Delgado went one step further - towards the east, to be precise. By taking his discoveries in gardens for the blind and using them in gardens for the sighted, by transforming them into systems, he created a totally new perspective to the Western approach to gardens. Thus, Silva Delgado is able to create perception epigrams which allow him to discover, for specific times and places, the intensity of tactile, smell, visual and hearing parameters. Visual perception causes a distortion which will be balanced by other aspects of the sensorial spectrum. Silva Delgadoìs skills would allow him to engrave his signature on the rocks of his gardens: Et in Arcadia Ego.
Chronology
Born in Salto, Uruguay in 1930. Studies drawing and painting with Josë Cuneo. He was assistant professor at the Escola Superior de Paisagismo in Versailles, France, and professor of historical landscaping in Madridd and Segovia, Spain, Montevideo, Ur $ Solo exhibitions and projects 1995 El Jardìn en el Arte Contemporžneo, Cìrculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain; private gardens in Madrid e Sotogrande, Spain. 1990/95 Galeria Sur, Punta del Este, e Galeria Bruzzone, Montevideo, Uruguay. 1989 Galeria Sur, Punta del Este, Uruguay. 1988 Galeria Bruzzone, Montevideo, Uruguay; Galeria Casa del Siglo XV, Seg�via, Spain; Galeria Muscade, Paris, France. 1987 Urbanizaçâo do Recreo de la Ballena, Cždiz, Spain; retrospective at Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales and project of museum gardens, Montevideo, Uruguay. 1985 Gardens of Hotel Bali Sol and complementary gardens of Golf Valderrama, Sotogrance, Cadiz, Spain. gardens in Santa Maria de las Niovoc, Toledo, Spain. 1983 Engravings and watercolors at Sociedade das Belas Artes, Lisboa, Portugal; Restoration of garden of sculptures of Cala Ratjada, Mallorca, Spain; Galeria Muscade, Paris, France. 1981 Entorno a un Jardìn y a un Paisaje, collage and watercolor, Galeria Ynguanzo, Madrid, Spain; restoration of Plaza del Rey, Madrid, Spain. 1978 Parque Urbano de la New Town de Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain. 1977 Restoration of Real Jardìn Botžnico de Madridd, Spain; Arte Actual de Iberoamërica, Museo Espa˜ol de Arte Contemporžneo e Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madridd, Madrid, Spain. 1975 Drawings and engravings, Galeria Propac, Madrid, Spain. 1967 Galeria Marie France Vaisiêre, Agen, France. 1965 Galeria Vercamer, Paris, France. 1963 Galeria Vercamer, Paris, France; engravings, Pratt Institute, New York, United States. 1960 Centro de Artes y Letras de EI Paìs, Montevideo, Uruguay. Group exhibitions 1985 Exposici�n Internacional de Acuarelas, Asociaci�n de Acuarelistas Vascos, Bilbao, Spain. 1986 Bienal de Arte Seriado, Sevilla, Spain. 1981 III Bienal de Obra Gržfica de Seul, Korea. 1974 Bienal de Obras Gržficas y Arte Seriado de Segovia, Spain. 1964 Arte Latinoamericano, Museu da Cidade Paris, Paris, France. 1962 Arte Latinoamericano, Museu de la Cidade de Paris, Paris, France. 1958 Exposiçâo Internacional de Porto Alegre, Brazil. 1957 IV Bienal de Sâo Paulo, Brazil; Bienal Hispanoamericana de Barcelona, Spain. 1956 Sal�n Nacional de Bellas Artes, Montevideo, Uruguay. 1955 III Bienal de Sâo Paulo, Brazil. 1950 Sal�n Nacional de Bellas Artes, Montevideo, Uruguay. Awards 1982 Prize for project for urban environmental improvement, restoration of Plaza Del Rey, Campanha Europëia do Renascimento da Cidade; Premio del Ayuntamiento de Madridd, Palomeras Sud-Este, Madrid, Spain. 1970 1st prize Plaza Col�n, Madrid, Spain. 1966 Medal graving, Salâo Intermacional de Paris, France. 1954 Prèmio ANCAP, Sal�n Nacional de Bellas Artes, Montevideo, Uruguay.