A new terraced garden in Sicily the poetic art of stones in landscape

This article concerns a garden in Sicily that I designed. This private garden is called‘Terreforti Garden,’ and uses a typical Sicilian drywall technique, organized by drywalls that create a series of terraces having different levels, shapes, and forms (Figure 1). Among these terraces were placed a swimming pool, a small ecological wood made by cork oaks combined with small palms organized by the owner, and a collection of more than 600 species of roses.1 However, the design idea does not depend on this Sicilian traditional use of stones in agriculture, but has its roots in many experiences and observations on agricultural landscapes characterized by the use of stones. In particular, the many distinct landscapes where stones were removed to organize a different and better use of agriculture. The examples presented in this text, from Tunisia to Morocco, from Italy to Spain, provide evidence of the art of moving stones and how it generates a variety of landscapes, both beautiful and emphatic. I believe that there is a relationship between abstract art and the process of producing lines, shapes, and forms in agricultural stone landscapes. The use of stones has played a primary role in the evolution of human beings. From their transformation in tools for hunting and objects for every- day life, stones also had a crucial role in humans’ artistic aspirations towards mystical and transcendental worlds, well expressed by ancient rock art.2 Among the many examples of the relationship between art and stone, Men- hirs and Dolmens represent the first examples of the art of moving stones. It was based on a simple alteration of stones’ natural positions; by moving them from the horizontal to the vertical position, humans changed the formal and expressive significance of territories, contributing to the definition of what Jellicoe3 called the first human landscape.