Tarot Garden, Sculpture garden in Capalbio, Italy
The Tarot Garden is a sculpture park on the southern slope of the Garavicchio hill in the Maremma, near Capalbio. Its twenty-two monumental figures, built on welded steel frames covered in concrete and clad with polychrome ceramics, mirrors and coloured glass, represent the major arcana of the tarot. Some are up to fifteen metres high and can be entered, including the Empress, whose interior was fitted out as an apartment.
French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle started building the garden in 1979 on a plot of land given to her in the Maremma region. The project took nearly twenty years to complete and opened to the public in 1998.
The sculptures use mirrors, colored glass, and steel to interpret the mystical symbols of tarot cards. They create spaces you can walk through and experience as you look at the artistic details.
The entrance pavilion by Mario Botta is a tuff wall with a single circular opening; the dirt path then climbs to a central square with a basin. The two-hectare site on the southern slope of Garavicchio hill is uneven, so wear sturdy shoes. Shade is scarce; carry water and sun protection in summer.
During the long construction period, Niki de Saint Phalle actually lived inside one of the sculptures, the High Priestess figure, which was large enough to serve as a home. That experience of living within her own artwork shaped the way some of the figures were designed to be entered and explored from the inside.
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