Jardín de Cactus

Jardín de Cactus is situated on the edge of the village of Guatiza while also looking beyond its limits to the many cultivated quarries and craters embodying the fertile equilibrium between nature and culture existing on the island. Surrounded by a patchwork of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) plantations, the garden, which was inaugurated on 17th March 1990, is situated in a disused picón quarry formerly providing local farmers with volcanic ash to scatter on their fields that was later turned into a rubbish tip. Inside, a concentric system of terraces and settings nestles in the walls of the quarry, which other geographic and cultural environments, and with the American continent in particular. Taking on unexpected fantastical forms, the project continues the process of transformation of the folds and hollows of the surface of the island, using the age-old techniques: raising terraces, spreading volcanic ash on the soil, and inventing forms of windbreak. In the 20th century, César Manrique explored this seemingly sterile material and taught people to recognize its beauty, creating real projects revealing new ways of living and strategies to defend the island from overdevelopment caused by tourism. The contribution of this militant artist who fought against the exploitation of the island for tourism from the 1960s onwards by proposing an alternative model brings us face to face with a series of unresolved issues in the relationship between conservation and transformation in landscape.