"If the garden had a verb, it would be to think": Byung-Chul Han inaugurates the Garden of Thought

The conference by Byung-Chul Han inaugurates the Garden of Thought

The Garden of Thought was inaugurated today - a new space dedicated to contemplation, reflection, and knowledge, located beside the Monastery of Leça do Balio. The occasion, attended by more than 500 people, was marked in a special way with a lecture by the German-Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, one of the most influential contemporary voices on society, technology, and the human condition.

Byung-Chul Han opened with a tribute to the landscape - to the green of nature, the solidity of the Monastery, the garden he had taken under his wing. "A garden is a place to linger," he said. "If the garden had a verb, it would certainly be to think."

The Garden of Thought is born as a space where contemplation and reflection become everyday practice, a place where time slows down and thought takes shape in dialogue with the landscape.

In his address, the world's most translated philosopher held nothing back in his warnings about the present. He cautioned against the growing human inability to stop and reflect: "We are turning into consumer livestock." On freedom in the digital world, he was blunt: "If revolution does not seem possible, perhaps it is because we have no time to think. With so many stimuli and dependencies, who can truly claim to be free?"

Han's lecture thus marked not only the opening of a garden, but the inauguration of a gesture: returning thought to the public sphere.

The ceremony also featured the presence of architect Álvaro Siza Vieira and landscape architect Sidónio Pardal, the minds behind the project's design, which includes a set of sculptures by Siza Vieira. It closed with a musical performance by the Matosinhos Jazz Orchestra, accompanied by Cristina Branco.

At the same venue, the Meeting of Culture Councillors also took place, under the theme "The Importance of Cultural Policies in the Future of Territories," fostering reflection on the strategic role of culture in the development of communities and cities.