Le Thiou en rêve

This ephemeral work has been removed.

As it was before the dikes, when water was free to run its course and left thousand-times-tumbled rocks, wood, and gravel in its wake, rue Saint-Maurice is again the bed of a forgotten torrent, strewn with unlikely islands taken over, as if conquered, by vegetation.

Under the beneficent eye of the acacias bordering the church, an illusion of untamed nature has emerged. You slow down, follow the mischievous twists and turns created by the river. Walking is not easy and you get lost in thought, start to dream. This installation by artist Lélia Demoisy and landscapers Adèle Hopquin and Par ailleurs Paysages raises questions about the room we leave (or don’t) for spontaneity and nature in our rectilinear constructions. Nature takes its place, and its freedom mocks geometry. We need to take the time to slip into this new landscape, make it ours, and feel its promise: a new beginning is possible.

Born 1991, visual artist Lélia Demoisy lives and works in Montainville (France). She has a degree in set design but currently focuses on visual arts, and sculpture and installations in particular. She highlights our physical relationship to matter, a fundamental given of our connection to living things, and explores the idea of merging with nature. She also works frequently with landscapers (Chaumont-sur-Loire in 2016, Lausanne jardins in 2019).

Born in France in 1990 and a graduate of École normale supérieure du paysage in Versailles, Adèle Hopquin is a landscape architect (DPLG*) who has been living and working in Zurich (Switzerland) since 2017. In 2016 she and Lélia Demoisy were awarded the jury’s special prize at the Festival international des jardins du domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire.
*Degree conferred by the French government

A collective created in 2016, Par ailleurs Paysages is run by two landscapers: Antoine Magnon (born in 1992) and Fanny Vesco (born in 1981). They are both graduates of École nationale supérieure de paysage in Marseille, where they are based. The collective experiments with various types of expression, thought, and action related to the landscape. They design and manage projects, perform studies, garden, and explore on their own or for public or private commissions

Lélia Demoisy, Adèle Hopquin & Par ailleurs Paysages won the 2019 Lausanne jardins competition with Terreau incognito.