As part of the Alriwaq Public Art Space installations in Bahrain, a floodlight and public seating were installed in a dying palm garden near the arts district of Adliya. Floodlights, typically used to cheaply light soccer fields, demarcate the inaccessible or surveil spaces for security, are used on site to highlight the palm grove, and invoke a dialogue on public space.

By using the floodlights, the proposal doesn’t just point to the existing possibilities for green space to be used once more, but remediates the policed landscapes of the country into moments of beauty through the use of cheap interventions as an alternative to infrastructure heavy parks.

The goal of the proposal is simple–it is to begin a conversation on unsolicited landscapes, looking less to the ‘build it they will come’ approach to public parks and more to the idea of ‘if you see it then it exists’. In creating such a small readjustment to a space, activating it by night the proposal argues that it is the minimum intervention needed to make one notice landscape–to recognize discarded space and a space worthy of a visit.

Within the space, a publication is made available featuring a photo series highlighting the residual greenscapes of Bahrain alternating between the tranquil light of the day shots and the harsh floodlights at night. The photo series is accompanied by a text delving into how a security measure shed light on the possibility of new landscapes and ecologies.