22. Hortus Spei – Jardin de l’espoir
Garden by Evor
Hortus Spei, le jardin de l’espoir (Hortus Spei, the Garden of Hope) makes good use of an experiment tested out over the years in Jungle intérieure (Indoor Jungle) in Nantes created by the artist Evor. It opts for a bountifully generous approach that re-establishes plant life as the main focus, foliage in particular, in all its aesthetic richness. The garden makes use of a plant palette that is both indigenous and exotic, with no partisan restrictions, fully embracing a taste for diversity as a dynamic major asset for the survival of gardens. Plants, whether in or out of fashion, unloved, recently arrived, prolific, suckering, or twining, all have their place in this lush green immersion. Running counter to the naysayers alarmed by the proliferation of plant life, its vivacity and finally its resilience, Hortus Spei opens the door to a green “invasion”, a profusion enveloping a fantastical wild garden, a piece of wasteland crowned in glory, a little paradise. Covering every one of its layers, perennials, bushes, shrubs, creepers and climbers in their pots compose a green cocoon. This potentially nomadic plant ark, ready to be moved and reconstituted somewhere that would save it from possible destruction, reminds us that plants are also a heritage to be preserved for future generations.
DESIGNERs
Evor is a visual artist who completed a dual study programme at Nantes School of Fine Arts and obtained a National Higher Diploma in Visual Studies (DNSEP) in the Arts and Design section. His body of work includes sculptures using a wide range of materials, such as ceramics, wood, metal, glass and various forms of organic matter. He exhibits in and outside Europe. Committed to the notion of “art of living”, an approach encompassing the practice of art and garden art, he believes in the importance of each detail as a poetic enlightener. Fascinated by nature and the plant world since his childhood, the creation of gardens has become one of his fields of experimentation. His hanging garden Jungle intérieure, composed of thousands of pots and plants, has overrun a succession of roofs in the heart of Nantes since 2018. This luxuriant green work, which attracts ever greater biodiversity with each passing year, has become a permanent feature in the Voyage à Nantes programme and a model of renaturation in a high-density urban centre. The garden obtained the 2021 “Fleur d’Or” Prize awarded by the National Council for the Floral Decoration of Towns and Villages (CNVVF). For the 2022 edition of Un Été au Havre (A Summer in Le Havre) contemporary art festival, he was commissioned to create a permanent plant sculpture, Volubiles pour Aimé (Twiners for Aimé), in allée Aimé Césaire: a cylindrical metal trellis 7 metres high and 3 metres wide, a refuge for biodiversity and support for climbing plants creating a luxuriant wilderness in the midst of the city.
“Nantes est un Jardin” is an association bringing together the city’s lovers of gardens and landscape. Project participants include Pépinières Val d’Erdre, Grandiflora, Pépinières Boutin, Fuchsias Delhommeau, Jardins à Thèmes (Laurent Gras), Gilles Lévêque, Bertrand Vuarnesson, Françoise Barret and Jacques Soignon.
