Dé-jardiner

Curated by
Karine Bonneval and Delphine Marinier

Dé-jardiner[1]

Is the urban garden a delusion A space designed by humankind for its own convenience, an area of formal experimentation for the gardener, a breather valve for the hurried city dweller? Neither greenery expanses planted in rows as a landscape science nor the residue of an old-growth forest is immune to anthropomorphising. Such a space is both tangible and fantasized, crafted or pleasurable. Traditionally, it doesn’t consider the vegetal as a living being. It is both a useful and pleasant construct.

Today’s gardeners are further developing this concept constantly, but the time scale of the living vegetal is far-removed from that of the human being. In our modern societies, that are cut off from the animist world, drawing as close as one can get to the “vegetal being” is a genuine challenge. Science sheds light on plants’ perceptions and their subtle mobility, but cohabiting the same landscape is no easy matter today.

How to tackle the issue of artistic creation as hand-picking? By summoning our secondary sensors in order to rid ourselves of old reflexes and lure the visitor into getting physically involved in their encounter with the other. Regardless of the form they take, they are minute, slow-paced adjustments and ineffectual rivals within what philosopher Yves Citton refers to as the “attention economy”, which is regarded as a resource one can leverage, according to market-driven strategies.

Dé-Jardiner invites you to an exploration tour of the open territories conjured up throughout the exhibition premises: the outcome of experiences, crossings, the reappropriation of our senses.

[1]Taken from the Exhibition Catalogue Jardin infini, Bénédicte Ramade, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2017