2019 edition - Gardens of paradise

Élixir floral

Festival International des Jardins

When we enter this Eden, we are immediately charmed by skilfully orchestrated exuberant plants.

Visitors are carried away by flowers boasting heady scents. Going further into the garden, delicious varieties and plants that are soft to the touch appeal to the other senses. A sound installation plays birdsong and the tinkling of a fountain in visitors’ ears. Above a pond, unreal flowers boasting unusual shapes attract the gaze and twirl in the wind. Their reflection in the water echoes real flowers, calling our relationship with reality into question, an effect which is especially powerful given the pond is also a mirror of the sky.

To reach paradise, you need a complete garden which awakens the five senses and also affects the mind.

That is the recipe for this elixir.

DESIGNERS

Sandrine TELLIER, landscaper, and Sophie KAO ARYA, artist

FRANCE

Sophie Kao Arya, a French-Thai artist, grew up, lives and works in France. For a few years now, she has also been holding more workshops in Thailand. Her first aesthetic emotions naturally came from Asia and a great respect for nature. In 2001, she invented a dynamic pictorial technique that explores fractal shapes. Through this innovative process, she has developed a contemporary understanding of plants and a unique aesthetic, linked to current environmental concerns.

Born in the Oise département and raised with profound respect for nature, Sandrine Tellier attended the Versailles National Graduate School of Landscape Architecture (diploma in “Garden Design in the Landscape” in 2016) after studying Engineering at the National Graduate School of Civil Engineering. Using this dual training, she designs gardens in symbiosis with their locations. She adapts to the constraints of the environment in order to showcase a space where biodiversity, the planet, others, oneself and finally, future generations are taken care of.