For more than twenty years the Israeli architect and artist Uri De Beer has been engaged in the wide field of humanitarian matters : it goes without saying that the solutions lie in the hands of a minority that intends to apply the principles of solidarity on an operative level. De Beer’s personal research leads to the consciousness that our world asks more and more frequently for ecological and economic actions as we speak about interventions in the public space. In this contest art is not understood any more as the expression of an individual thought but as an attempt to create something useful for the community. In line with this premise the proposal of his new intervention in the San Giuliano Park in Mestre near Venice, offers a synthesis of four aspects that characterize the entire artistic production of Uri De Beer, four categoric imperatives which, in his opinion, should be adopted by nowadays art world :

 an artwork should be conceived on the basis of scientific principles - dispose of site specific coordinates, which means to be studied for a certain place and not for another
 keep the costs of production low by means of the use of recycled materials
 aim at a social and supportive imprint through the permanent collaboration with people of different origin, generation and formation in the process of production

At this point, we remember the nation where the artist comes from : Israel, from its very beginning, has favoured the coexistence and the cooperation of diverse social groups and De Beer, in his previous experiences, realised a big part of his works with the help of residents in hospitals and in hospices, with factories and schools.

De Beer’s intervention in the San Giuliano Park, entitled The Water Flowers Fates, is an artistic practical contribution to the concept of a vital Park, which had been renewed and rearranged by the lucky intervention of the Istituzione Bosco e Grandi Parchi of the Municipality of Venice, a Park which presents a huge range of cultural,entertaining and tourist activities dedicated to its visitors. Since it was reopened, the Park transmits an atmosphere in which its natural landscape elements blend into artistic, cultural and informative ones. Land-Art, local panorama and international aspects, mixed together, intensify social and cultural objectives in green areas.

The floating installations conceived by De Beer for the Egrets Lake belong to his famous Plasti-Flora series of environmental art, created by the assembling of soft, already used water bottles, transformed into various species of flowers, trees, bushes and entire landscapes. The artist’s method means to reuse plastic bottle and to reintegrate them into space under the shape of an Eco-Garden, which reveals to be a convincing concept for public administrations and for private ones as well.

The collaboration with public representatives and sponsors on the other hand is orientated towards a new sensibility that defends the plus value of culture and represents a new indispensable pylon for the future of public art and its quality. De Beer’s art work satisfies these demands on giving visibility to the territory of destination, principally through the visits of a cultured audience which is more attentive towards landscape and its conservation. A public which has already been actively engaged in the process of production during the previous steps, in the gathering of the material, organized with the help of different cultural organizations, with volunteers in the area of Mestre, with the pupils of some Elementary Schools, with the students of the Academy of Fine Art of Venice, with some members of the Parish of San Giovanni in Bragora, with some sports clubs and a huge number of parents interested in environmental improvement.

Subsequently all of them participated in the transformation of the collected material into artistic elements, ready for the montage on plexi-glass platforms destined to float for some months in the lake. In a very surprising way the basic material returns to a new life, in other words, to an artistic life: the art works, though being synthetic, merge into the natural habitat of the egrets, without invasive gestures as if it were integral part of nature , waiting to be explored by curious passers-by.

The broad spectrum of interpretation depends on the dynamic character of the installation which does not only interact with space but also with climatic factors, the changes of the seasons and of vegetation, the inclination of the light, and the visual orientation. Somebody will explore the tiny path from Claude Monet’s Water Garden to Joseph Beuys’ creatures dwelling on the surface of a Venetian lake. Somebody will discover the site, study its topographical qualities, its environmental aspects and understand the contemporaneity of the art work, due to the author’s genius. There will be somebody, at last, that nterrogates the alphabet of contaminations, on taking the conclusion that real art is some kind of social metamorphosis from ugly into beautiful, from useless into useful, from throwaway into attractive elements that make the world brighter and its people more cheerful.

The exhibition event that lasts until November 2011, is promoted by the Istituzione Bosco e Grandi Parchi of the Municipality of Venice, by the Department of Education and by Spazio Thetis. The Water Fates Flowers is the first chapter of the story Contaminating : For the Upcoming Thought, whose new adventures can be followed in different places of Venice during the next months. The project’s concept, its scientific coordination and realisation is curated by the international group The Seven, engaged in landscape planning and renewal projects with artistic itineraries. Special thanks to the sponsors Eco Tower, Banca Santo Spirito and San Marco Colori.