AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle created the Tarot Garden (Il Giardino dei Tarocchi), a sculpture park which is considered her lifetime biggest achievement, over a twenty-year period between 1978 and 1998. The Tarot Garden is located in southern Tuscany near the town of Capalbio, on a site with a rich archeological history dating back to the Etruscan period. The structures and sculptures within the Tarot Garden are inspired by the main 22 figures from the Tarot Major Arcana, and are often monumental in size; in fact, de Saint Phalle lived inside one of these structures –The Empress – intermittently during the Garden’s creation. The sculptures and structures are made of various materials including painted fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin, cement, and thousands of ceramic tiles and mirrors in the manner of Anton Gaudi’s Parc Guell. De Saint Phalle referred to herself as “the architect” of the garden while acknowledging the centrality of collaboration to the project,1 producing the structures in conjunction with prominent artists such as her husband Jean Tingueley, and with local residents, particularly in the fabrication of the colorful ceramic tiles, which were handmade on site.

After de Saint Phalle’s death in 2002, stewardship of the Tarot Garden was passed to the Fondazione il Giardino dei Tarocchi, with support of the artist’s estate, The Niki Charitable Art Foundation. Given the varied materials used in the creation of the sculptures and their constant exposure to the environment, comprehensive documentation and a maintenance plan were deemed necessary to promote efficient management and care of both the sculptures and the park at large. The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) has committed to provide support in the Tarot Garden’s preservation through an ongoing project in conjunction with the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) of Carleton University.

This paper will address the interdisciplinary collaboration between the Fondazione, GCI, and CIMS in creating a robust long-term preservation plan for the Tarot Garden, including various forms of digital documentation, condition assessments, and interviews with living collaborators and current site caretakers. A variety of recording methods were used to document the site, including terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), aerial, terrestrial, and panoramic photography, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) surveying, and total station (TS) surveying. Significant challenges for documentation were posed by the large size, irregular shape, and immersive siting of the structures, in addition to the specular reflection of the ceramic and mirrored tiles on their interior and exterior surfaces. Methods were specifically developed to overcome these challenges utilizing solutions from point cloud and photogrammetric processing. Furthermore, these comprehensive documentation strategies resulted in the creation of tangible digital assets including measured line drawings, orthorectified images, a Geographic Information System (GIS), and a photographic record portfolio. This paper will investigate how this cache of digital assets actively functions in tandem with the site maintenance plan and the training of onsite caretakers to promote holistic conservation efforts of both physical and intangible aspects of the site. 

[1] Niki de Saint Phalle, The Tarot Garden (Berne: Benteli Publishers, 1997), 5-6.