04BIS. Survient la terre, jaillit la vie
The Earth is indefinitely capable of self regeneration. It knows all the stratagems and holds all the keys to life, even in places where we think it has been lost forever. Plants always try to cover empty surfaces. The first to emerge from the ground prepare the way, providing the elements necessary for those that follow to survive and so on, until a perfect balance is achieved in a true ecosystem. This mysterious energy is displayed here. A force comes from the depths of the earth to crack and split the ground. Life has arrived. As you explore this oasis, you are struck by an outpouring of vegetation. The plants chosen are some of the extraordinary species that are capable of surviving in the most barren environments, such as industrial areas or spaces covered in tarmac. Plants that grow on wasteland are often edible, as if to demonstrate the perpetual bounty of nature despite all the difficulties we make it endure. At the heart of this garden, plants are all conquering and strong. Pioneering or nectar-bearing, they represent resilient nature, able to regroup despite all the disturbances it suffers.
DESIGNERS
Born in Rennes, Martin Gasc grew up with a pencil in one hand and a violin in the other, his head in the clouds and his feet at the local sports stadium. In 2006, after a year at the St Brieuc art school, he left his native Brittany for Paris where he enrolled at the Olivier de Serres School of Art and Design, and later at the Paris Design School. This training led him to develop a style that combines architecture, graphic design and drawing. This appetite for multifaceted creativity took him to the United States where he studied for a semester at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Fresh from this multidisciplinary training he joined Ateliers Jean Nouvel as a graphic designer in 2012 and then the following year enrolled at the Paris School of Architecture at La Villette. Three years later he graduated with project management skills, joining the Atelier Novembre in 2016 where he worked on various projects for public institutions, including the competition for a new conservatoire in Rennes, the Henri Poincaré mathematics research institute and the Carpentras museum and library. In 2018 he returned to Rennes to start his own business combining architecture, art and illustration.
Laure Guillou grew up in a small village between the coast and the Arrée mountains. Her parents were dairy farmers committed to converting to organic farming, and they passed on to her both their love of their chosen career and a desire for a job that she loved and which matched with her ideals. After gaining her baccalaureate and taking a little detour via catering college, she enrolled in Rennes Art School, where she got stuck in and developed a rich and individual artistic vocabulary. She was able to use her creativity and spirit of enquiry and innovation to become a designer. She continued her training at the French School of Industrial Design where she learnt to design objects, spaces and services according to the needs of users and manufacturing processes. She worked for a year for the Arter agency which designs and produces large-scale artistic and cultural projects. She then moved to the Jura where she worked for Janod designing wooden toys and reconnecting with her inner child. After a year travelling in New Zealand, she returned to her home region. Today she is a freelance designer and exhibition designer and continues to apply the same working method, analysing needs, determining a response, creating sketches, 3D computer modelling, models and public consultation.
Marie Lehoux comes from a family of organic farmers and teachers. She wanted to return to her passion for plants and share this love with the greatest number of people possible. After training as a lawyer, she wanted to travel and left to live in Australia and Germany for several years, where she worked as a barista. Working with coffee roasters, she trained a clientèle of coffee lovers to become coffee tasters, in the manner of wine tasters. When she returned to France, she trained as a landscape designer at the Le Fresnes agricultural college in Angers. Having learnt a lot about the practicalities of the job along with essential plant knowledge, she decided to start an ecological design and garden maintenance business in Nantes. Since then she has helped individuals and businesses to increase wildlife and biodiversity in their gardens
