19. LE JARDIN DE LA GROTTE

For the designer, the grotto – or the temple – is a place that is the traditional setting for sumptuous stories of seduction, of lust, of all the imaginable excesses of earthly life.

The garden revisits the traditional theme of the grotto, a hidden, mysterious space concealed by skilful use of plants. To reach the grotto, you must take the flower-bordered path that leads away to the left, and slowly go past the imposing structure to come upon the entrance to the grotto at the end of the path. You visit that closed-off place with apprehension and curiosity, to experience all the feelings and emotions that it can call forth in us, and finally to leave it, perhaps with a sense of relief, by taking the secret exit.

Ivan ZANTCHEVSKI, landscape-architect

 

 

Ivan Zantchevski was born in the Ural region in Russia, where he studied to become an urban architect at the Ekaterinburg School of Architecture, while working at the same time as a set designer for events. On the road since he graduated, he has lived in the Czech Republic and in Israel, working in urban planning and landscaping firms. In France since 2004, he finished his initial training at the Ecole de Paysage de Versailles and at the Sorbonne/ENSAV where he did his Masters 2 in Historical gardens, heritage and landscape. For several years now he has been working for Bertrand Paulet, a Parisian landscaper. He is currently developing his own artistic and landscaping projects between France and Russia. In his motherland he has won many awards in landscaping competitions and he is currently creating a living art and sculptures park for Archstoyanie, in the Russian countryside. For him, landscaping projects are a passionate quest for a dream, for renewal and for the enigma of time. Carrying them out is his life...