These five new landscape art installations are now on display at the 23rd International Garden Festival

Project Summary: "The romantic notion of believing that forests spared from all human contact and interference will thrive has unfortunately been disproven. As long as humanity persists on its present course, it has become unrealistic to expect our forests to defend themselves. Forteresses is a symbolic intervention within the forest, proposing an aggressive method to protect our flora from its greatest predator: ourselves. The geometry of each modular defensive system adapts to the size, type and age of each tree. Forteresses is meant to be appreciated for the beauty of its geometries in addition to encouraging visitors to question the impact they have on their environment and reminding them that our flora is often unable to protect itself."

Lichen
Marie-Pier Gauthier-Manes, product and space designer
Chloé Isaac, graphic designer and ceramicist
Victor Roussel, 3D artist
Paris, France / Montréal, Québec

Project Summary: "The lichen is a perceptive, malleable and mutable organism. It metamorphoses in contact with the topography, humidity and ambient temperature. Like its namesake, Lichen is sensitive to disturbances in its environment and is therefore a valuable indicator of environmental change. Composed of small, delicate elements, it is nonetheless a cohesive and resistant structure that serves to prepare the ground for other plant species. As we wander between its agglomerations, we observe, otherwise invisible, elements reveal themselves in colourful patterns. Inspired by terracotta pots, real archetypes in gardens, this installation is composed of 1,200 hand-made earthenware rings that are fired in an outdoor kiln right here at the Jardins de Métis. The drainage and water retention capabilities of this material allow for both a more constant irrigation of the soil and a longer retention of moisture. This environment allows plants that are particularly sensitive to temperature variations and drought to grow peacefully. Its thermochromic treatment changes its appearance according to the temperature to reveal different colours throughout the summer season."

Gravity Field
Theodore Hoerr, Landscape Architect
Kelly Waters, Landscape Designer
Rebecca Shen, Landscape Designer
New York, United States

Project Summary: "Plants are extraordinarily adaptive. They can thrive in some of the harshest environments on earth by responding to a myriad of stimuli – sun, water, temperature, soil, and gravity – to sustain life. Plants are also essential to human existence, providing sustenance, ecosystem services, and carbon sequestration. While they play a key role in mitigating the effects of climate change that threaten our existence as a species, they too are also vulnerable and must adapt quickly to a rapidly changing climate. Gravity Field demonstrates the robust adaptation of plants in even extremely strenuous conditions. The sunflowers are grown upside-down but will bend up as they grow towards the sun, defying gravity. Visitors can visit the installation numerous times to experience how adaptable plants are to their circumstances: phototropically, gravitropically, and heliotropically. While the future is uncertain, Gravity Field spotlights the powerful resilience of nature and sees optimism in the ability of plants, and all organisms, to adapt and thrive."

Les Huit Collines
Noël Picaper, architect
Levallois-Perret, France

Project Summary: "Conceived as evolving structures, those eight hills imagine biological spatialities. Through inanimate and organic materials, they create life effects. A hilly landscape then appears, capable of offering various experiences to humans as well as to non-humans (birds in particular). Serving as a seating area, a micro-garden, a contemplative space and an ecological reservoir, this project offers visitors a multitude of spatial sequences to practice, seating, hiding places and amphitheatre and more. The intention, behind this assembly of surfaces, is to reveal the richness of a whole environment, catalyzing other forms of interactions for various living beings. Dreamlike and supporting functions, this work influences the climate by softening the summer heat with its shades and its flora. Les huit collines thus elaborate a landscape charged with meaning that never ceases to evolve both by its composition and by the cycles of life that it shelters."

Forêt finie, espace infini?
Antonin Boulanger Cartier, intern architect
Melaine Niget, urban planner and intern architect
Pierre-Olivier Demeule, intern architect
Québec City, Québec

Project Summary: "From a distance, Forêt finie, espace infini?, takes on the appearance of a pile of sawn wood that a carpenter might have placed there while waiting for his next project. This defined form covered with a plastic sheeting waits in the summer heat. Rooted in the middle of a path crossing the boreal forest, the installation however obstructs the passage. Without being able to go around it, is it possible to cross it, to face it seems inevitable. By approaching, a section of the tarpaulin is unhooked, and you are invited to slip into it. Inside, a structure made of finely assembled wooden slats reveals a path modulated by a play of solids and voids. What are all these cleverly arranged slats and why do they seek to reach the infinite? Aren’t they constrained by this tarpaulin that can be seen from the outside? Looking up at the sky, a brief glance at the tall trees suggests a final thought: if the space we build emanates from a world of finite resources and therefore cannot be infinite, could this skillfully sculpted forest able to be?"