Forêt

CONTEMPORARY GARDENS

Forêt

photo: Nancy Guignard

The feet of visitors look for support on the soft ground that bounces slightly underfoot. The smell of humus is strong. Sometimes the rain sings on the roof of this enveloping world. Through a vertical reading of the space, the installation highlights the essence of a wooded environment. The pierced canvas allows some sun rays to filter through. They become visible in the fine haze that disperse jets at regular intervals. In this favourable environment, life awakens in the substratum lining the ground. In the shadows, the senses of visitors awaken. The experience of the garden happens here beyond the garden. It is an immersive space in which darkness magnifies the light. Forêt is a staging, a strange and unexpected circus. Forêt is an enclosed environment of dreams and of the imagination, a space that opens in our head. Forêt is the idea of the forest: the forest in the absolute.

DESIGNER / RONAN VIRONDAUD, MATHILDE LEVEAU

Mathilde Leveau is visual artist, trained in Quebec City. Ronan Virondaud is an architect and scenographer, trained in Le Mans, in France. They met at Hangar Crealab, in Le Mans, of which Ronan is the co-founder, where new forms of work (artistic, technical or creative) are developed. Mathilde was in residence there in November 2018. Their common interest to work on shaping spaces, through the use of natural materials, encouraged them to design this first project in tandem, Forêt, for the International Garden Festival.