Anti Lulling Field

A perfectly squared plantation of oversized corn poppies - 1300 red plastic flowers of the same height, but different shapes is located in the garden of San Servolo Island (Venice - Italy) nearby the sidewalk. During the exhibition CREAM on Madness within OPEN 11, the visitors of the island could interact with the fake plantation of these mechanical flowers.

The aim of Anti Lulling Field is to go beyond the usual description of madness, showing how unstable one's relationship with reason and clearness of mind can be. With the approach of the visitor, the flowers in the centre of the little plantation start to sway, producing a feeling similar to the one experienced when one finds himself/ herself in the middle of high vegetation and perceives some movements in distance, without knowing what caused them. At least for one moment, that unidentifiable entity becomes the cause of an intense and primary fear, which takes us beyond the boundaries of normality.

Anti Lulling Field, moreover, allows us to experience a singular game of mirrors: the agent causing the fear (the visitor who releases the movement sensors situated around the corn poppies field) is also the one who experiences its effects.
So may be the case with hallucinations, when we can see things as if they were real, out of us, when they are actually only a product of our mind.