19. Théâtre du rideau blanc
Theatre of the White Curtain
Awarded on the 12th of June 2024 by a jury of professionals renowned in the world of garden art
Through the cycle of seasons, we get to experience great drama. For nature, there is the healing rest of winter, the growing pains of spring, the seductive beauty of summer and through autumn, a brutal decay. If creating a garden is about staging nature, plants - these living things - may have something to say. Théâtre du rideau blanc (Theatre of the white curtain) is a winter landscape holding its breath, not just yet awaken by the blooming spring. The structure of our garden revolves around a human-made architecture erected in the centre of a snowy mineral landscape and offers, like the proscenium stage, a space for magnifying life. To inhabit the whiteness, we gather a company of the most expressive blue evergreens, these resistant beings that never let go of their garments. Together, they showcase a rich diversity and individually, each of them carries a unique story to tell. Inside the abstract slanted volume reminiscent of root cellars, visitors are invited to take shelter and enjoy the show. The question is: who’s watching who? There is a saying that children mostly grow in their sleep. Snow and ice act together like a warming blanket for the sleeping seeds, bulbs, roots and all the micro-organisms. Underneath this calm, monochrome and silent world there is an explosive outburst waiting - the outburst of life!
DESIGNERS
Annick Lavallée-Benny cumulates 7 years studying scenography, first in Canada in the classic tradition of a theatre school and then in Norway where the notion of scenography expanded to the fields of visual arts, architecture and all the in-between. Since 2010, she has been experimenting and investigating the power of space, design and building in a variety of scales and venues from opera, to museums and the public spaces. Through a fruitful collaboration with American artist Robert Wilson, she has been leading creation projects in an international setting, each time adapting and reacting to the local contexts. Parallel to her practice, Annick has been working as an artist-in-residence at the National Theatre School of Canada in 2017 and since then regularly support graduating students in their creative process as a coach/mentor. It is in this context that she first met Étienne. Annick and Hanna first met in the small town of Fredrikstad, in the bubble of the theatre academy during which they both contributed to curating and organising an annual 2 days festival/conference. They also planted trees together for the first time at the Watermill Center.
Hanna Reidmar is a Swedish scenographer and light designer. Since her graduation from the Norwegian theatre academy in Norway 2012, she has worked around Scandinavia and Germany with opera, dance, theatre and exhibition design both in large institutions and smaller independently funded groups. In addition to this, she occasionally runs her own productions in different art groups constellations. In her artistic research, Hanna works with and explores spaces keeping a special focus on transformation through time. Whoever enters a space should feel that it has its own life and that their very presence has an undeniable impact. Since over 12 years, Hanna and Annick have engaged in an ongoing discussion and share inspiring artistic exchanges on the reality of their respective practices. From that, emerged a longing and started the active search for opportunities to create a work in close collaboration.
First developing his creative skills and sense of space through scenography at the National Theatre School of Canada, Étienne René-Contant is a recent graduate of the landscape architecture undergraduate program of Université de Montréal during which he spent a significant semester at the Technical University of Munich. Étienne is interested in the storytelling potential of landscape and the porous frontier between empirical observation they provide and their representations. It is in contact with a recent opera project and other theatre creations that he has developed a sensitive and curious approach to territory and the ones inhabiting them. His abilities as a designer have been appreciated during his 2021 passage at the Provenchez_Roy architectural firm when working amongst others with design in heritage context. As a landscape architect, Étienne is convinced of the collective impact and unifying potential of landscapes and thus always makes sure to put his talents and expertise at the service of each project and communities involved.
