Chaumont-sur-Loire: XVII Festival international des jardins

by Olivia Cremascoli
photos Eric Sander

The center-north of France is famous for the Loire chateaux, but international landscapers like one of them in particular, that of Chaumont-sur-Loire, the location of the annual Festival International des Jardins. One of the names launched here was Patrick Blanc, the ‘green star’ of the moment.

Entering the vast domaine of the chateau of Chaumont-sur- Loire for the Festival one feels like Alice in Through the Looking-Glass, who six months after her voyage in Wonderland crosses a mirror to encounter new fairytale characters, woods, flowers, wasps... With its intriguing historical anecdotes (past owners included Caterina de’ Medici, who often invited Nostradamus, and then Diane de Poitiers, Madame de Staël, the princes of Broglie, who went bankrupt and ceded the castle to the Région Centre, supported by Hermès for the restoration of the stables), the chateau of Chaumont (15th century), thanks to the recent management by Chantal Colleu-Dumond (previously a cultural envoy at the French embassy in Rome), has been ‘unified’ since the end of 2007 with the Festival, taking on the role of a Center of Art and Nature. Starting in July the place will also host exhibitions of contemporary art, with a large site-specific work by Jannis Kounellis, and three other installations by Erik Samakh, who plays with poetic fireflies in the park; Rainer Gross, who concentrates on ephemeral sculpture below a cedar tree and on the boughs of a linden tree; and Victoria Klotz, inspired by the mad passion of the Princess of Broglie for elephants and dogs. It goes without saying that the enchanting charm of this place is further enhanced in the six months (30 April - 19 October) of sensual growth and inebriating aromas of the 27 finalist gardens of the annual festival hosted in the park of the chateau facing the Loire. Created in 1992 by the Conservatoire international des parcs et jardins et du paysage with the aim of monitoring the renewal of design activity in the field of gardens and landscape, the competition-festival is open to working teams from all over the world, with a preference for interdisciplinary squadrons (landscape architects, designers, artists, set designers, nurserymen, graduate students). Visited each summer by over 150,000 persons (tickets cost 7 euros), the festival is the interesting result of a long, laborious process, involving a jury (chaired by Louis Benech) which selects 27 finalists – there are 27 lots available – who have worked on that year’s theme. The argument for 2008 was Des jardins en partage, or ‘shared gardens’, a theme with a range of interpretations, from the most philosophically cosmic to the most materially simple, with a stated focus on recycling and sustainability. The recycling can even be extreme, if we consider the interpretation of the garden by the group from the Università La Sapienza of Rome, which designed Repos éternel, namely a cemetery with tombstones with light borders, surrounded by tender grass and comfortable chaises longues. The French were a bit shocked, because they hadn’t seen the Dutch Post Mortem at Design Week in Milan ’06, or the English “Dead” at the Tate Liverpool in 2004. A more convivial tone was struck by Le jardin qu’on mange by Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, ‘captain’ of the second Italian crew among the finalists (a record for the Italians this year, just like the Cannes Film Festival), or by the very lively garden-kitchen called Le parfait, in honor of the French conserves of the same name, which a varied French team (landscape designer, electronic engineer and two architects) piled up everywhere in a garden with overtones of Luis Barragan. The question of recycling was brilliantly addressed by the invited city of Paris, famous for its municipal competition Main verte, which offered Méli mélo, a garden composed of zinc planes supported by pillars of beverage cans and old perforated spades as indicators of edible garden delights. Michel and Christine Péna offered a masterful demonstration of recycling of the ‘scraps’ of their landscaper colleagues, Le jardin poubelle. As a tribute to the delightful slow pace of this place, we recommend reaching the small town of Chaumont by rail (RailEurope), getting off at Onzain, in the Loir-et-Cher region (www.tourismeloir-et-cher.com), then crossing the Loire and climbing up toward the castle. For different orientations you can always see the Maison de la France (www.franceguide.com).