2010 edition - Body and soul gardens

02. Hommage à Lady Day

published at 08/11/2017

Hommage à Lady Day, Festival des Jardins, 2010 - © Éric. Sander

Billie Holiday (1915-1959), a musical legend still popular today, died an untimely death at the age of 44. Her emotive voice, innovative techniques and touching songs will forever be remembered and enjoyed. Holiday began working with Lester Young in 1936, who pegged her with her now-famous nickname of “Lady Day”. Despite her lack of technical training, Holiday’s unique diction, inimitable phrasing and acute dramatic intensity made her the outstanding jazz singer of her day. Billie Holiday says in her autobiography: “Singing songs like the ‘The Man I Love’ or ‘Body & Soul’ is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck. I’ve lived songs like that”.

The garden is a tribute to Billie Holiday. A tribute to a tragical life signed by failed and unattainable love and addiction to heroin. The garden is inspired by the scene of a nightclub, a jazz lounge. It represents the loneliness and inaccessibility of the artist but also the direct personal relation between artist and public, connected through music.

A Zen like experience is created in form of a moment of peace en quiet in contrast with the liveliness of the rest of the exhibition. The shell of the garden is strong and black, the heart of the garden is soft and pink. The Body is invited to relax while something refreshing is offered to the Soul. What speaks better to the Soul than music and colour?

The garden is enclosed by a curtain. After entering the garden through the curtain the visitor enters the intimate atmosphere of the jazz lounge. Comfortable couches invite to sit down and relax, thus creating a moment of peace en quiet in contrast with the liveliness of the rest of the exhibition. The relax area has a black wooden floor which is slightly lifted, thus creating a platform. It’s covered by a black lacquered wooden roof to provide shadow.

From the relax area the visitor is overlooking a stage created by a soft field of flowers.

The stage of flowers is the only colored element in the garden, a tender palette of light pinks and whites in deep contrast with all the other elements in the garden which are black.

The stage of flowers is empty. A lone microphone and a black grand piano are the only objects in the tender stage of flowers. But Lady Day is present. A recording of the classic jazz song “Body and Soul”, performed by Billie Holiday fills the garden with sweet intoxicating music.

designers

STROOTMAN LANDSCHAPSARCHITECTEN BV -Anne ZARAGOZA, Jasper SPRINGELING, Berno STROOTMAN and Matthijs WILLEMSEN-

THE NETHERLANDS

From left to right: Anne Zaragoza, Jasper Springeling, Berno Strootman and Matthijs Willemsen

Anne Zaragoza was born in Nantes, France in 1982. From 1999 to 2002 she studied Fine Arts in Marseille, and then until 2006 Landscape Architecture in Versailles and Edinburgh. In 2006 she has cooperated intensively in the design and construction of the garden for the festival ‘Transmusicales de Rennes’. She has acquired international work experience in practices based in San Francisco, Edinburgh, Milan and Antwerp. From beginning 2007 she works at Strootman Landscape Architects in Amsterdam, on various landscape design projects, from rural to urban areas and from regional planning to garden design.

Jasper Springeling was born in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands in 1972. He studied Graphic Design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam) & Willem De Kooning Academie (Rotterdam) from 1999 to 2002. From a graphics background he workt on events, moving image and graphic design in a variety of cooperations with other young creatives before joining the Strootman team in the summer of 2007.

Berno Strootman was born in Enschede, the Netherlands in 1961. He studied Landscape Architecture at the University of Wageningen from 1980 to 1988. He worked for several design offices before setting up his own office Strootman Landschapsarchitecten in Amsterdam in 2002. The office is a mix of landscape architects, urbanists, architects, industrial designers and graphic designers, working on projects on the outer edges of the discipline. Strootman Landschapsarchitecten explore crossover zones where landscape architecture meets urbanism, cultural history, ecology, art and architecture. This exploration takes the office from regional plans to garden design, from rural areas to the city, and from research to realisation. Strootman regularly collaborates with other disciplines such as ecology, architecture, transport planning, hydrology, & sociology. Strootman works on a mix of projects of divergent scales, both in rural and urban areas and makes plans for whole regions but also for parks, country estates, housing areas and squares. The work of Berno Strootman and his office is characterized by a mix of analytical depth and visionary perspective. The team works rationally and academically in analysis and concept stages, then artistically and playfully in the development of it. The work is conceptual but always with a view to being constructed; at the end of the day all that counts is what is to be built. Important projects are the Masterplan for Twente Airport, ‘The New Rural Estate’ in Ede: design for a park with rising topography, including a facilities centre and housing, Stakenpark in Oldenzaal, Smithfield Plaza in Dublin, Design of the Wieringerrandmeer: a new lake of 650 hectares, 1,845 residences, bridges, viaducts, sluices, beaches etc., Schoonloo and Steenbergen Country Estates, the Landscape design and management plan for the Strubben Kniphorstbosch, the Oldenzaal Scenic Walk: design of a linear park, the Forest design for Boswachterij Dorst, the Water purification park on Lankheet estate and the Landscape plan Drentsche Aa. Berno Strootman is a visiting lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam and has taught at the Larenstein University of Professional Education in Velp and the University of Wageningen. In 1998 he co-authored the book De Landschapsstad (‘Landscape City’) with Leo Pols. He is the supervisor of Meerstad Groningen: 10.000 residences, a new lake of 600 hectares, new landscape and new nature to the east of Groningen, and he is the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Subsidies for Belvedere Projects of the Netherlands Fund for Architecture. Berno Strootman was awarded the Harry de Vroome Medal in 2005. In 2006 www.strootman.net was chosen as the best landscape architect’s website in the Netherlands, in the poll organized by www.ArchiNed.nl. The office was nominated with three projects for the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona 2009. Berno Strootman won the Torsanlorenzo International Prize for the design of the Water Treatment Park in Lankheet in 2009 and the LEAF award 2009 for the design of the Wieringen Passage.

Matthijs Willemsen was born in Hilversum, The Netherlands in 1966. From 1991 to 1995 he studied Landscape Architecture at the Agriculture University of Wageningen. He worked as a landscape architect for A,G&P in Milan en as landscape architect and urban designer for the Municipality of Haarlemmermeer en the City of Amsterdam. From December 2008 he works at Strootman Landscape Architects in Amsterdam, as senior designer/project architect on projects for urban development and landscape architecture in urban and rural contexts at all scales.

designers

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