Art, cities and landscape – Hortillonnages Amiens 2014
2014 is the 5th edition of the festival « Art, cities and landscape », organised by the Maison de la culture of Amiens (House of the culture). Open air show, the festival is an opportunity for wanderers and art, nature, and garden-lovers to discover and re-discover the Hortillonnages, a unique territory in the heart of Amiens. Between earth and water, young landscapers, visual artists and architects have realized works in the 300 hectares of the site. This year, no less than 37 projects are scattered in this fragile and majestic space, to offer a point of view upon the site itself and beyond, upon the questions regarding the environment and the relationship between human beings and nature.
In the frame of the projet « Out of the blue-WOAD », five plots or installations are dedicated to woad : Issue Project, Prospect & Refuge, Remnant, La Terre est basse et Green plant – Yellow flower – Blue Dye. Moreover, a fashion show, organized by University Picardie Jules-Verne and University of Brighton, have paid a tribute to the blue of the kings, during the opening show, the 28th June.
Projects funded by the “Out of the blue-“ project.
LA TERRE EST BASSE – 2014
Collectif Dérive : Pierre-Yves Péré, architecte et James Bouquart, paysagiste.
Using the traditional technique of the « pisé », which consist in compressing the earth to make a walls, Pierre-Yves Péré and James Bouquart underling the ephemeral character of the islands in the Hortillonnages, which banks need a constant maintenance to resist to erosion.
PROSPECT & REFUGE – 2014
Sarah Tolley, Paddy Clarke, Ed Gant, landscape designer.
At the occasion of the commemorations of the Great War centenary, the three landscape designers wished to recall the violence of the battles and their victims in the Somme. They have recreated forms to remember the trenches. But these constructions create also new perspectives, metaphor of hope and renewal after any conflict.
REMNANT – 2014
Andrew Fisher Tomlin, Dan Bowyer, landscape designers.
With its geometrical patterns, the garden Remnant recreate a fabric, tribute to the industry of textile in Amiens and to Isatis Tinctoria, a great source of wealth during the Middle Age. Andrew fisher Tomlin and Dan Bowyer worked with Streetscape, a London social enterprise which helps young people under twenty five who are long-term employed to enter the world of work.
GREEN PLANT - YELLOW FLOWER - BLUE DYE
Jo Chapman, Steve Papps, lanscape designers.
By using this plot in length, the two landscape designers show the long process of dying, from a plant to the beautiful blue-woad. At the end of the plot, a construction made of wood, allude to the market gardening, traditional activity in the Hortillonnages.
ISSUE PROJECT – 2012
Aurélie Menaldo, visual artist
It’s a sculpture halfway between a machine and an item of children’s play equipment, a fantastical arrangement bringing together a slide and a bulldozer bucket balanced on a wooden tripod and the whole installed on rails! With this curious object, the visual artist Aurélie Menaldo has designed a machine which gives access to a subterranean, aquatic and magical world.
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