The Living Pyramid is a site-specific work, first constructed in 2015 at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York and later at the Nordstadtpark in Kassel as part of documenta 14 in 2017. It can also be thought of as a living sculpture, with a natural life cycle. The pyramid was planted, in part, by volunteer participants on September 10-11, and it will grow and change shape as thousands of seeds turn into grasses and flowers. Denes’ Manifesto, carved onto a marble slab and produced especially for this exhibition, takes its place as a permanent addition to the collection and garden. Made of wooden stepped terraces filled with four tons of earth, the pyramid arcs nine meters into the sky. Planted into its terraces are two thousand plants and flowers belonging to approximately six hundred species, selected in collaboration with the artist from the urban flora of Istanbul, their positions on the pyramid determined by the amount of sun and shade falling on each façade. The pyramid will evolve throughout its public exhibition: the plants will sprout and bloom, some will go to seed, some will die. For Denes, this process is evidence of the organic development of nature as it interacts with the pyramid, one of the most iconic forms of human civilization. Her statement, “While the pyramids are based on mathematics and thus achieve a kind of perfection, they contain all the imperfections they are dealing with or are representing and visualizing,” provides some insight into why she chooses to explore the relationship between humans and nature through the living pyramid. Denes, who has been using the pyramid form as a metaphor in different media from drawing to sculpture for nearly half a century, also uses the form to question the social hierarchies inherent in our perception of the world. • Construction • Installation