Tiergarten is an artifact grown out of all the histories of Berlin: floodplain of the glacial valley, wetland, royal hunting game, forest with carved Baroque rooms, landscape park, stage for nazi parades, battlefield of II World War, firewood and farming land in state of emergency, reconstructed in the Post-War years. Fenced in by a Kurfürst at first, later unfenced for the public, and perhaps fenced again in the future. It reconciles many worlds at once: A model prototype for a city where life is thriving, rich in species, evoking the unusual ethics and esthetics of Sublime, Horrific and Rococo decay. Tiergarten is inclusive, beautiful and messy, interpretable in use and generous in sharing. Tiergarten is an oracle of future that might be, will ever be, might never be. A promise of lichens and moss in the midst of burnt hydrocarbons. This Teaching-Research-Studio continues the analytic and cartographic work of the Seminar of the Summer Semester 2013, mapping historical and current layers of human, animal, mineral and floral nature in Tiergarten.

Sandra Bartoli is responsible for the research-studio Tiergarten – This Obscure Object of Desire 2