22nd International Garden Festival in Canada

This year's festival aims to bring us hope, inspire creativity and enlighten the world while we still struggle to overcome the global pandemic, in order to get back on our feet after these difficult months of isolation. This year, the five selected projects from Canada, the United States, France and Sweden add to the existing gardens to form an open-air museum, offering a journey of installations en plein air. Let's see them in detail.  
Choose your Own Adventure by Balmori Associates (Noémie Lafaurie-Debany, Javier Gonzalez-Campana, Simon Escabi, Chris Liao, Cristina Preciado, landscapers and urban planners)  of New York, USA, starts from a reflection on our connection with nature. All this from a perspective, influenced by the pandemic, which should lead us to change our current, rather toxic relationship with other living beings and the elements of nature. All the more reason, then, after living in isolation, to start appreciating natural phenomena, the same ones that this team has set up for the exhibition at Les Jardins de Métis.
Swedish architect Emil Bäckström's Hässja presents three structures used for drying hay. They are based on a renewed interest in traditional and sustainable ways of living, with the specific aim of displaying an ancient way of working the land. The three structures made from the same plants that surround them, unlike the original structures, offer a small space inside, a refuge from the contemporary world. Their purpose is therefore to make us reflect on the relationship between man and nature, on the methods, past and future, of how we inhabit our planet.
Miroirs acoustiques, the acoustic mirrors of Canadian landscape architects Emmanuelle Loslier and Camille Zaroubi, consist of two parabolic reflectors planted in the ground, recycled aluminium antennas with a hole in the middle from which to observe the context. One of them points at the festival, a man-made environment, while the other at a wooded area and the St Lawrence River, thus giving visitors two very different "soundtracks". 
Open Space by legaga (architecture interns Gabriel Lemelin, Francis Gaignard, Sandrine Gaulin) is what the title suggests: the walls of a typical house are opened up to create a floor plan that is itself open and offers infinite possibilities. With this simple yet ingenious idea, typical elements of the home such as doors, stairs, windows and walls take on a new meaning, challenging our preconceptions. As the young designers say: “In the past year, houses have become a symbol of lockdown. In Open Space, they go back to being a fun, safe and familiar place where you can let your imagination run wild. And when you let your imagination run wild, you can find magic anywhere.”
Porte-bonheur, or Door of Fortune, by David Bonnard, architect of DE-HMONP, with landscape architect Laura Giuliani and visual artist Amélie Viale, from Lyon, Villefranche sur Saone and Lissieu in France, finally proposes a rite of passage between reality and potential. Theirs is an installation that invites visitors to dare, to open the door, to cross the threshold to go out and explore the surrounding environment with all the wonder of a child. A gesture more necessary than ever after the long months of confinement.
Christiane Bürklein

International Garden Festival
29 May -  3 October 2021
Reford Gardens, Quebec, Canada
Images: see captions 
1) Open Space, legaga [Gabriel Lemelin, Francis Gaignard, Sandrine Gaulin, architectural interns], Quebec (Quebec) Canada, Photo credit: JC Lemay
2) International Garden Festival, Reford Gardens, Photo credit: JC Lemay
3) Choose your Own Adventure, Balmori Associates [Noémie Lafaurie-Debany, Javier Gonzalez-Campana, Simon Escabi, Chris Liao, Cristina Preciado, landscapers and urban planners], New York, United-States, Photo credit: JC Lemay
4) Choose your Own Adventure, Balmori Associates [Noémie Lafaurie-Debany, Javier Gonzalez-Campana, Simon Escabi, Chris Liao, Cristina Preciado, landscapers and urban planners], New York, United-States, Photo credit: JC Lemay
5) Hässja, Emil Bäckström, architect, Stockholm, Sweden, Photo credit: Martin Bond
6) Hässja, Emil Bäckström, architect, Stockholm, Sweden, Photo credit: JC Lemay
7) Miroirs acoustiques, Emmanuelle Loslier, landscape architect, Camille Zaroubi, landscape architect, Montreal (Quebec) Canada, Photo credit: JC Lemay
8) Miroirs acoustiques, Emmanuelle Loslier, landscape architect, Camille Zaroubi, landscape architect, Montreal (Quebec) Canada, Photo credit: JC Lemay
9) Open Space, legaga [Gabriel Lemelin, Francis Gaignard, Sandrine Gaulin, architectural interns], Quebec (Quebec) Canada, Photo credit: JC Lemay
10) Porte-bonheur, David Bonnard, DE-HMONP architect, Laura Giuliani, landscaper, Amélie Viale, visual artist, Lyon, Villefranche sur Saone and Lissieu, France, Photo credit: Nancy Guignard
11) Porte-bonheur, David Bonnard, DE-HMONP architect, Laura Giuliani, landscaper, Amélie Viale, visual artist, Lyon, Villefranche sur Saone and Lissieu, France, Photo credit: Nancy Guignard
Find out more: https://jardinsdemetis.com/en/the-international-garden-festival/