Eleven sensory and truly sensational contemporary gardens by designers from Australia, France, Germany, the United States, Québec, and Canada will once again enchant visitors to the seventh edition of the International Garden Festival, to be held from 24 June to 1 October 2006.

Many of this year’s gardens are designed to awaken the senses of sound, smell, sight, and touch. Luxuriate in the perfumes of a silk lantern rising out of an orange grove in Le jardin des Hespérides by Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot (United States and France); explore a lunar landscape with an interactive solar system in Nettoyage à sec II: Tomber dans la lune by AMMA/Amélie Germain and Marie-Andrée Huard (Québec); discover the subtle sounds of a eucalyptus forest in Eucalyptus Lost by Kate Cullity and Ryan Sims (Australia); bounce along on a witty interpretation of safety and security measures in Safe Zone by Stoss Landscape Urbanism/Chris Reed (United States).

Other designers reinterpret the Québec landscape, inviting us to reflect on our relationship to the land: Sous-terrain de jeu, by Cédule 40/Julien Boily, Étienne Boulanger, Sonia Boudreau, and Noémie Payant-Hébert (Québec), employs vernacular rural, agricultural, and playground vocabularies in a garden planted with visitor participation; Core Sample, by North Design Office/Peter and Alissa North (Ontario), celebrates notions of collection, sampling, exploration, and discovery; Le bois de biais, by Atelier le balto/Marc Pouzol, Véronique Faucheur, and Marc Vatinel (Germany), pushes the boundaries of the allotted site creating a momentary confusion about the location of the garden, the site, the landscape, and the forest; and L’effet des serres, by Bosses design/Éric Daoust, Donald Potvin, and Jean-François Potvin (Québec), plays with the phonetics of the French translation for “greenhouse effect” (effet de serre, effets desserts, les faits de cerfs, et fait des serres, effet des serres …); its starting point is in fact the ubiquitous greenhouse itself.

Three spectacular gardens created for earlier editions of the Festival complete the program: Camouflage View by Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch (United States), Modulations by Phillippe Coignet and David Serero (France), and Coloured Reflections by Hal Ingberg (Québec).

Please clic here for a detailed description of the gardens presented in the 7th edition of the International Garden Festival.

The 2006 program also includes a hands-on workshop for children and their families, performances by Québec and Australian artists, and a round table with the designers.

Gardens, let’s garden, get gardening!

The Festival is initiating a hands-on workshop for children and families. Children aged 5 to 12 accompanied by an adult are invited to explore the fascinating contemporary gardens, then get their hands dirty in a collective garden that will evolve over the entire summer.

Performances

On 23 and 24 June the Australian visual artist Ryan Sims will present a performance inspired by the importance of water for the Australian continent. Extravagant and playful costumes form the basis of an interactive performance that interprets the theatricality of haute couture with materials inspired by the garden and irrigation.

On the weekend of 7 to 9 July two performances are scheduled. Totem sonique, a sound work by the Montréal media artist Martin Leduc, is an aquarium-like instrument designed to be touched and played, inviting visitors to explore and experience an innovative sound universe. And four artists from Québec City, Les Fermières obsédées, will present La tranchée tragique, a startling performance that will take place in a wildflower field on the Festival site.

Round Table

Saturday 24 June is the occasion for an informal round table on the designing of temporary gardens in the context of a Festival and how this informs the practice of contemporary landscape architecture. Participants include Kate Cullity, Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot, Amélie Germain and Marie-Andrée Huard, and Marc Pouzol.

Métis-sur-Montréal

The Festival is also launching Métis-sur-Montréal, bringing the innovation and creativity of Métis to the big city. 10,000 up, an urban arbour designed by the architects Atelier in situ/Annie Lebel and Stéphane Pratte, will be inaugurated on Victoria Square in Montréal’s Quartier International on 23 May. Sponsored by Alcoa Canada, the garden features 10,000 green-coloured recycled pop cans and will be on view until the end of July.

In addition, the famous Blue Stick Garden by Claude Cormier architectes paysagistes will be exhibited at International Flora Montréal in the Parc des Écluses in the Old Port of Montréal from June through October.

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