"Viens..."

Sensual star at the International Festival of Gardens: Eroticism in the Garden

07/26/2002
"Viens..."
As those of who you who read the article on this garden festival know, the competition is stiff if a prize were to be awarded at the 11th International Festival of Gardens on the theme of eroticism in the garden. But the wonderful thing is, there are no prizes. This must be one of the contributing factors to the rich creativity exhibited at this festival.

But if I were forced to be pick a favorite, this garden, named "Viens", which means "come here" (or perhaps more appropriately, "come hither"). I loved this garden best because it was the most multi-sensory, and perhaps also because it included words--poetry--and music. Altogether, I found it at once the most subtly and the most explicitly erotic.

The avowed concept of the designers was "the edge of desire." The garden consists of a mixed bed of perennials, annuals, and grasses in shades of red, purple, and hot pink, bordering a "pool" of perfectly polished steel plates. These reflect both the plants around them and the sky. This fantastic 'world' of desire is surrounded by a moat planted with pale green sedum (see photo at left), which emphasizes that we can't penetrate this world. We, meanwhile, tread a path of fine particles of black rubber (ground up recycled tires) which is deep and kept moist by fog machines. Our feet sink in this deep black moistness, and our footing is just a bit uncertain.

The garden across the pool beckons us with its charnal colors and sensuous forms. The plants are a tapestry of red sugar cane, red salvias, red, rose, and purple penstemons, red lupines, red petunias, and the erotically curved Stipa tenuifolia visible at the edge of the pool, whose fronds swirl invitingly around a mysterious center. But alas, we are stranded on the edge of desire.

Meanwhile, behind us is a planting of rows of a cane-like grass (Miscanthus gigantea), where we may wander up and down, still on the moist, black paths, catching glimpses of our desire on the other side of the pool. Deep in the cane, in fact, we can't see our desire at all. But we can hear it calling us. There are three speakers in this installation. One, deep in the cane, intones a chanted poem that is highly erotic, told from the point of view of the garden of flowers trying to attract a certain visitor (pollinator? you fill in the rest...)

The second, near the edge of the cane, as well as the third, located across the pool in the world of desire, chant a different poem, equally erotic, set against a rhythm of soft tones. The two speakers are not in synch; that is to say, there is a time-delay between where in the "song" each of them is, so that the effect is that of a round. The effect is altogether mesmerizing--at once serene, calming, and terribly erotic. The environment is warm and moist, with a sound backdrop of an entrancing chant, drawing you closer and closer to the edge of desire.

The creators of this masterpiece are members of a collective called Atelier Projectiles, consisting of Eric Stephany, Flore Baudelot, and Rezar Azard, architects; Michael Batalla, poet; and François Chardon, botanist landscaper, all from France. Bravo!!
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