04. PÉCHÉS VIRTUELS
The 21st century often hesitates between real and virtual. Nowadays, the deadly sins have a reality that is different from the one that they had in the past. For the designers of the garden, it is the world of contemporary “virtuality” that constitutes the ultimate sin.
By staging a spatial conflict between “nature and image” and an expression of “excess versus restraint”, the garden offers a joyful illustration of Purgatory and Paradise reconciled.
Move forward along the floor to the bottom of the garden to contemplate and to meditate upon the excesses of our century. On the right, you will be plunged into an Eden made of free, rippling plants. On the left, you will discover two large coloured photographic wings, testimony to a fallen angel that landed in a beautiful natural environment. The wings illustrate our fictional sins, forming a picture wherein is expressed a new, magical, day-dreamed nature.
designers
From left to right: Anne Marie Arbefeuille, Pierre Froissac and Gérard Pontet
Anne Marie Arbefeuille is a graduate from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art in Paris in Visual Expression. She specialised in Antique Furniture and Art Objects at the Institut d’Études Supérieures des Arts in Paris. She specialised in theatrical set design in Daniel Louradour's studio, a set designer and painter for shows (Paris ADAC). At the same time, she worked as a freelance set designer for cultural and industrial exhibition projects. Freelance Photographer and self-employed Artistic Director, for the last 10 years she has been developing her career as a photographer-artist. In galleries and shows she exhibits her subject matters of choice, tied to depicting the mineral and the vegetable. She is always on the lookout for those moments when photography, graphic arts and the imaginary become one.
Pierre Froissac trained as a "volume model maker" in architecture. Specialised in special effects for cinema and shows, he became a "model maker" for photography. At the same time, he worked as a Volume Artist in various business sectors requiring representations of artistic and industrial concepts in 3 dimensions, including advertising, furniture and luxury. Working freelance, since 1980 he has carried out collaborative work with many artists and designers. He produces prototypes in partnership with industry, automobile, transport, art schools, and so forth, by lending his technical know-how and inventiveness to designers. Passionate about the environment, he regularly escapes from Paris to practice "No Kill" fishing, which for him is closely tied to water, ecology and heritage.
Gérard Pontet was born into a family of horticulturists, florists and landscapers, who have lived just outside of Paris for the last 2 generations. He is a graduate of the Ecole d'Horticulture du Breuil (Year of 1965). He worked for 3 years at a horticultural production company and has spent a full career as an interior and outdoor landscaping company. Evolving from the position of team leader to that of construction manager, he has put a lot into research and development as well as in-house training. Passionate about botany, plants, their life and their cultivation, he likes travelling to study them in their natural environment, while practicing documentary photography.
