15. La planète en ébullition

It has become all too clear: with urbanisation given free rein, the signs of climate imbalance are on the increase; global warming, rising waters, deforestation, waste and pollution are becoming part of our daily lives. Realising this, the global society is trying to turn the situation around via energy transition and inventing methods of soilless cultivation.
This is a garden that plays with such notions, expressing them in poetic and symbolic fashion. From a pond topped by a central pontoon, visitors are invited to contemplate a scene in constant motion, revealing itself like a 360° panoramic painting.
Turn and turn about, the pond’s seething surface and tidal effects evoke global warming and the rising seas. All around, a landscape composed of craters of arid red clayey earth harbours the last remains of a luxuriant tropical nature, calling to mind the soil erosion and forest fragmentation caused by deforestation.
Iridescent metal spheres, “techno-planets” infiltrated by vegetation, are set randomly in arid little valleys between the craters and the water’s edge.
As if by a mise en abîme of the “planet in danger” concept, they evoke our ability to construct a world where untamed nature is preserved and where design and art try to bring innovative aesthetic and botanical solutions to nurture our hopes.

Designer

Alexis TRICOIRE, designer and visual artist
FRANCE

A leading light in the field of plant design, Alexis Tricoire has spent the last ten years and more rethinking the role that living nature plays in our society. His work focuses on the study of a new form of urbanisation where the link with nature is restored by his approach as an artist and designer.
Well-known for the impact his multisensory technological mises-en-scène have on the public, he is regularly invited to design objects and monumental sculptures throughout the world. He brings an innovative eye to each project, committed both to wellbeing in urban environments and protection of the planet.

His creativity has been expressed through exhibitions in such high-prestige public spaces as the Grand Palais during COP21, the National Museum of Natural History, the Ministry of the Environment, Château de Versailles, Saint-Cloud Park, the Tuileries Garden and the Floralies in Nantes – as well in more permanent fashion in private and public places alike: offices, shops, shopping centres and railway stations where his creations add to the aesthetic appeal and wellbeing of indoor and outdoor areas alike.
His studio Végétal Atmosphère was set up in 2009 and is a true laboratory in which he and his team design vegetable innovations intended to enhance the environment. He has just been awarded the 2017 Janus “Espace de Vie” label for his “Botanic Twist” garden bench, produced by TF Urban.