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In Almere Pampus five intersecting lines lie in the landscape as the letter of a strange script. Three narrow canals, a strip of black gravel carrying a sculpture with aluminium walls, and a footpath form the Land Art project Polderland Garden of Love and Fire by architect Daniel Libeskind (Lodz, Poland, 1946).

One of the greatest Spanish mystics and poets, Juan de la Cruz (1542 - 1591) inspired Libeskind for his work in Almere with his poem Flame of Living Love. In Polderland Garden of Love and Fire the lines interconnect people in different places and times. The three canals symbolize the imaginary connection between three cities: Salamanca, the city where Juan de la Cruz studied, Berlin, where Libeskind lived and worked at the time, and Almere, the place where the artwork is located. The geometric pattern of Polderland Garden of Love and Fire ties in seamlessly with the man-made landscape of Flevoland that also merges nature, art and technology. (1) Lines play an important role in Libeskind's work. They not only function as a geometric shape, but also as a connection or, conversely, as a boundary. With his language of forms, Libeskind wants to give expression to the course of life and history and to the stories that are connected to a certain place.

The labyrinthine aluminium sculpture symbolizes the journey of discovery made during man's life. Wandering through this abstract and simplified labyrinth results in a confrontation with obstacles and moments of upsetting discomfort, whereas the next turn offers openness and is filled with possibilities. This sense of displacement also plays a role in Libeskind's personal life. Born in Poland, he emigrated to the United States and later also to Israel and Berlin. Cultural history, his personal past, but also the idea of the genius loci, are recurring themes in his work. He asked himself what Almere's genius loci is: the spirit of a place as it is engraved on our collective memory. (2) New town Almere has attached itself to the bottom of the former Zuiderzee not even forty years ago and through the emptiness in his work Libeskind signals Almere's lack of history and the uprooted state of the polderland's inhabitants. With Polderland Garden of Love and Fire Libeskind also creates a spiritual place in the polder as a symbol for new life: a meditation garden where one can reflect upon the interaction between landscape and built-up environment, nature and culture, and past and future. Currently, Polderland Garden of Love and Fire is still situated in the middle of the fields of the unbuilt Almere Pampus. When this southwestern part of Almere will be built on in the future, the artwork will, as an eyewitness to the past, be of a different significance to the urban landscape.

Before anything, Libeskind is an architecture theorist. He designed beautiful buildings with geometric and complex constructions but never realized them. The first architectonic design of the 'paper' architect that was executed was the Jewish Museum in Berlin, which was completed in 1999. The Land Art project Polderland Garden of Love and Fire dates back as far as 1997 and therefore takes in a special place in his oeuvre. Libeskind is considered to be one of the most important representatives of Deconstructivism in architecture, an approach that was initially represented by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930). Deconstructivism is an architectural movement to which also Rem Koolhaas, the architect of Almere's city centre, is considered to belong. According to Libeskind, the significance of architecture no longer is to create a built-up environment. He believes that all the new means of communication have made the city invisible and even unnecessary. Libeskind considered this state of displacement and uprootedness the current human condition. (3) The imagery of the Deconstructivists is geared to provide an answer to the question of what exactly architecture is essentially and what place it takes up in day-to-day reality. Using lines, inclined planes and angular forms, they try to express the complexity of daily life in architecture.

The Garden of Love and Fire on Studio Libeskind's website

Location: Pampushavenweg (between Oostvaardersdijk and Brikweg), Almere
Materials: aluminium, concrete, water, trees
Dimensions: 250 x 250 metres
Proprietor and maintenance: the Municipality of Almere
Landscape maintenance: Tomin Groep. The surrounding area is owned and maintained by Het Flevo-landschap.

Notes:
(1) Esther Agricola, Architectuur van de ontheemding. De Mysterieuze taal van Daniel Libeskind (Architecture of displacement. The mysterious language of Daniel Libeskind). p. 41, in: Antoinette Andriesse & Lia Gieling, (ed.), (1999), Landschapskunst in Almere (Land Art in Almere), Museum De Paviljoens.
(2) Petran Kockelkoren, In de geest van de Polder, p.5, in Antoinette Andriesse & Lia Gieling, (red.), (1999), Landschapskunst in Almere, Museum De Paviljoens.
(3) Esther Agricola, Architectuur van de ontheemding. De Mysterieuze taal van Daniel Libeskind (Architecture of displacement. The mysterious language of Daniel Libeskind). p. 42, in: Antoinette Andriesse & Lia Gieling, (ed.), (1999), Landschapskunst in Almere (Land Art in Almere), Museum De Paviljoens

Mood Masters created a video in which the municipality, Kunstwacht and curator Martine van Kampen tell about the renovation of Polderland Garden of Love and Fire in 2017 (Dutch):

A TED talk by Daniel Libeskind: 17 words of architectural inspiration:

Watch Omroep Flevoland's episode with Jord den Hollander about Daniel Libeskind's project (Dutch only).

The artwork was severely damaged and has been replaced by the Almere municipality, in collaboration with Kunstwacht BV. Since Wednesday October 4th 2027, the work can be admired again in its renewed state.