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G 59: A Manifesto for an Ambivalent Modernism

The first Swiss Horticulture Exhibition, known as G 59, took place on Lake Zürich in 1959. Despite its horticultural label, G 59 was intended to demonstrate that landscape architecture was a modern profession with defined boundaries, a strong theoretical foundation, and recognizable contemporary aesthetics. However, G 59 was also a contested field between professional landscape architects and gardening trade organizations. In an effort to distance themselves from the more service-oriented discipline, landscape designers established a rapprochement with contemporary art and theory, specifically, Concrete Art and Tachism. This paper investigates the reorientation of Swiss landscape architecture from a profession with roots in horticulture to one with theoretical and aesthetic claims. G 59 can be seen not only as a venue for and an expression of this reorientation, but also as a manifesto through which landscape architects communicated their beliefs to design colleagues and the wider public.

KEYWORDS G 59, Swiss landscape architecture, Concrete Art, Tachism