PAV Experimental center for contemporary art
Turin
Piedmont
Italy

The initiative – which is part of the PAV AEF [Educational and Training Activities] involving individuals, communities and school groups in programmes offered in an educational and continuing education context – developed into a contribution to the International Village Shop.

The first of the existing local production systems – developed by Urbees, an urban bee-keeping collective, similar to the International Village Shop – involves the keeping of a number of bee colonies, and the collection, packaging and distribution of honey. Along the same lines, the park is also used as a space for design and creation, with new plants being grown (aromatic, officinal, edible, etc.), the dried flowers or leaves of which are used – in their natural form or as a base for derivative products – and transformed into soaps, scented bags, herbs for cooking, spirits, oil lotions and plant powders. As well as the types mentioned, a specific set of new plants are also being grown for the purposes of obtaining locally grown seeds and implementing a policy of free exchange for plant dispersal, which includes fully protected local species at risk of extinction. As well as the garden, the project extends across the entire surface of the park, involving pre-existing plants used to create products which, once processed and packaged, will be offered to the International Village Shop.