23 Apr 2024
On the eve of the inauguration of its anniversary edition, which will run from June 22 to October 6, 2024, on the theme of The Ecology of Possibilities, the Reford Gardens International Garden Festival announces that it will partner for the first time with the Festival International des Jardins, the emblematic event of the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, in France.
International Garden Festival organizers first reached out to Chantal Colleu-Dumond, director of the prestigious Domaine, in 2022, eventually leading to a reciprocal invitation to participate in the festivals’ 33rd and 25th editions, respectively.
An all-female team from Québec will represent the Reford Gardens International Garden Festival at the 2024 edition of the Festival International des Jardins of the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, which will be held from April 24 to November 3, 2024, on the theme Jardin source de vie [The Life-Source Garden]. Festival and Reford Gardens Director Alexander Reford, and Festival Artistic Director Ève De Garie-Lamanque will join the designers for the inauguration ceremony at Chaumont-sur-Loire on Friday, May 3.
The following month, the French delegation will travel to Grand-Métis to complete the installation of their unique garden and to take part in the opening ceremony and the Journées de réflexion on June 21, 22 and 23. The keynote speech will be given by our guest of honour, Chantal Colleu-Dumond, on Saturday, June 22, at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
33rd Festival International des Jardins of the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (Centre-Val de Loire, France)
Carte verte to the Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens International Garden Festival
FolkFlore
LNpaysage (Luu-Thuy Nguyen, landscape architect)
Champ Libre, studio créatif (Émilie Tanguay-Pelchat, landscape architect and scenographer)
Ève De Garie-Lamanque, curator
In collaboration with Yvette Michelin, sash finger weaver
FolkFlore is set against the backdrop of the dawn of the digital age, globalization and the frenetic pace of technological advancement—all elements that are profoundly altering our relationship with time, the physical world and each other. It stands in stark contrast to the homogenizing force of globalization and offers an in-depth reflection on the garden as a cultural construction.
By evoking both the boreal forest and the art of sash-weaving, FolkFlore embodies our vision of an ecologically, economically and culturally responsible future. Interdisciplinary and resilient, it speaks to the need to showcase, pass on and safeguard our intangible heritage.
Reford Gardens 25th International Garden Festival (Québec, Canada)
Guest of honour: Festival International des Jardins of the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire
Bruissement d’ailes
Bernard Chapuis, landscape architect
Georges Vafias, architect and scenographer
Bruissement d’ailes highlights the need to get back to basics, to be as close as possible to our natural environment. Climate change and the destruction of natural habitats—these are the new conditions that the world’s temperate zones are now facing. Fragility, imbalance and uncertainty are now the order of the day, requiring every one of us to adapt to a changing climate by doing everything possible to temper the harmful effects of rising temperatures, by rethinking our behaviour, battling heat islands, and using new or traditional ways to address the problem of water and shade scarcity. Bruissement d’ailes encourages visitors to rekindle their relationship with nature and to pause for a moment in the shade of three elaborate sails, like outstretched wings over a waterlily pond.
An important partnership
The timing of this collaboration could not be more opportune: Not only is the Reford Gardens International Garden Festival celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this summer, but it is also an opportunity to recall that it was the Domaine’s garden festival that inspired the creation of the Reford Gardens festival in the first place, in 2000.
The partnership between these two flagship events in the world of contemporary gardens—both of which favour an interdisciplinary, eco-responsible approach—will undoubtedly contribute to the sharing and pooling of expertise, not to mention visibility on both sides of the Atlantic for the innovative work of the landscape professionals from Québec and France.
Festival International des Jardins
Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire
41150 CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE
FRANCE
33rd Edition - Jardin source de vie
April 24 - November 3, 2024
Opening Day: May 3, 2024
Reford Gardens
International Garden Festival
200, route 132
Grand-Métis (Québec), G0J 1Z0
CANADA
25th Edition - The Ecology of Possibility
June 22 - October 6, 2024
Opening Day: June 21, 2024
Journées de réflexion - Ouvrir les possibles
June 22-23, 2024
Aire Desjardins, Grand hall
Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens
- Registration required -
Source:
Olivier Lapierre
Media Relations (Québec/Canada)
olivier.olpr@gmail.com
Pénélope Fortin
Media Relations (International)
Sandrine Mahaut
Media relations, Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire
sandrine.mahaut@domaine-chaumont.fr
