Exhibition-Contest Conception
“French Garden on the Banks of the Neva” Exhibition-Contest
In 2010, the “Imperial Gardens of Russia” Festival is officially included into the programme celebrating the year of France in Russia. Therefore, both the Festival and the exhibition-contest will be dedicated to the history and traditions of French park and gardening art. The programme of the “Imperial Gardens of Russia” Third International Festival comprises: master-classes of Russian and foreign florists and horticulturists; lectures and advice for professionals and amateurs; seminars with participation of the leading Russian and foreign landscape architects and garden designers; performances of musical, drama, chorus and ballet groups. Two days will be dedicated to special programmes for children and physically challenged people.
The exhibition-contest of landscape compositions on the subject “French Garden on the Banks of the Neva” will be held within the framework of the Festival. The famous gardens of France are the aim of the exhibition, which will enable to trace their influence on the development of park and gardening art in Russia, Germany, England and Holland, and to illustrate the diversity of techniques and approaches once used in French gardens and employed by contemporary landscape architects.
The venue of the exhibition-contest is the Mikhailovsky Garden.
According to its architectural planning, the Mikhailovsky Garden is symbolically divided into two parts – regular and landscape — by the “Maslyany Meadow”. The exhibition lots for participants are divided into two groups accordingly and will constitute two nominations. Each group comprises 10 exhibition lots. Totally: 20 lots.
Supposedly, the main themes for the participants of the festival and exhibition-contest can be:
- Pharmaceutical Garden — a union of agriculturists, fruit-growers, vegetable-growers, horticulturists, landscape architects and designers — Yesterday and Today
- Secret of Old Liqueur — a bouquet of flowers and herbs in a crystal glass and an old recipe.
- Gardens and Parks within a Frame — animated landscapes and still-lifes by French (and not only French) impressionists.
- Garden Aromatherapy — a bouquet of flowers and herbs in a small crystal bottle and mystery of perfume creation and art of perfumery.
- Portrait of a Flower — live nature and art of an artist-photographer.
First Nomination: “Royal Gardens”
In the western part of the Mikhailovsky Garden the participants will be offered to create compositions relating to the typical elements of French regular gardens of the 16th—18th centuries, including gardens of the French Renaissance epoch, a period of flourishing and luxury of French Monarchy. The most famous gardens of France are Château de Villandry (1536), Château de Chenonceau (1559—1570), Château de Fontainebleau (1522), Vaux-le-Vicomte (1658—1661), Château de Versailles (1662—1700), Château de Chantilly (1663—1684), Château de Saint-Cloud (1664—1665), Parc de Sceaux (1670), Tuileries Gardens (1664). The fine samples of French regular gardens in Russia are Peterhof and Kuskovo; Sanssouci, the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen, Charlottenburg Palace and Park in Germany; Hampton Court in England; Drottningholm Palace and Garden in Sweden; Het Loo in Holland and Schönbrunn in Austria.
On the allotted ten lots the members of this group will create compositions in classical manner resorting to typical elements of regular gardening derived from historical materials. The lots of the group are in the western part of the Mikhailovsky Garden.
The typical elements of a French regular garden are parterres, bosquets, border planting, berceau, trellises, pavilions-hermitages, poultry-yards, vegetable gardens, labyrinths, greenhouses, fountains, sculptures, topiary and tub trees, and bushes.
Second Nomination: “Gardens of the Republic”
In the eastern part of the Mikhailovsky Garden the participants of the group are offered to address French traditions of gardening of the late 18th – early 21st centuries, when after the Great French Revolution France was proclaimed a republic.
It was the epoch of Enlightenment and Romanticism connected with the development of landscape style in park and gardening art; a reference to the diversity of landscapes and natural wealth of France. The Philosophical Park Ermenonville (1767) as well as Parc de Bagatelle, Petit Trianon in Versailles, gardens of Château de Canon, Château de Courances, Parc Montsouris; Pavlovsk, Gatchina and Tsaritsyno in Russia take pride of place.
It was the epoch of Impressionism and its painterly impact on park and gardening art. Since then, painting — landscapes by the renowned artists Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain and Claude Monet — has become the source of motifs, themes and inspiration for horticulturists. Though changing in reality, parks and gardens have always remained unchanged on canvas and paper.
A vivid example of such metamorphoses is the oeuvre of Claude Monet and the Giverny Garden. In 1883, the artist settled in the village and became such a passionate gardener that he created on his canvases nothing but the views of his favourite garden, the new image of a French garden.
It was the epoch of modern tendencies of landscape art and public gardens and parks in France: Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Bercy Park, Parc de la Villette, André Citroën Park, Jardin Atlantique and Centre Georges Pompidou Garden.
In this nomination the participants are not enframed within the strict limits of one style. The Mikhailovsky Garden as such can become the only restriction, since each section has its own character and peculiarities. The participants are free to choose and develop any theme, which they think can characterise this period in the most interesting way, harmoniously blend into the present landscape of the Mikhailovsky Garden — the monument of park and gardening art of the late 18th – early 19th centuries.
The main principle for the participants of the contest in creating their compositions and the main criterion for selection and estimation of the presented projects are:
- strict adherence to classical traditions;
- possible precision in recreating the fragments and details of historical samples, optional.
The most important thing is creative freedom, boldness, fantasy, elegancy and original stylization.
Projects of the participants not meeting the requirement of the conceptions and terms of the contest yet, nevertheless, revealing a certain extraordinary, vivid and creative idea of the composition are accepted to the exhibition hors concour under a separate nomination.
The names of the lots in two nominations suggested for landscape compositions by the authors of the conception are mentioned below. A participant is free to choose any lot and change its name according to his/her personal project design.
Explication of Lots (see plan-scheme below)
First Nomination: “Royal Gardens”
1. “Lace Parterre” – Gala parterres (fragments of flower parterres of famous park and gardening ensembles in France and Russia).
2. Bosquet – “Pharmaceutical Garden” (fragments of Pharmaceutical or Red Gardens in Russia).
3. Bosquet – “Royal Vegetable Garden” (fragments of the Villandry Royal Garden or other decorative vegetable gardens in France).
4. Elements – “Trickies” (berceau, trellises, palmettes, alcoves, fountains and minor sculptural compositions).
5. “Royal Gardener” Bosquet (the bosquet is dedicated to the oldest profession of a gardener and landscape architect).
6. “Split-type Parterre” – Gala parterres (fragments of flower parterres of famous park and gardening ensembles in France and Russia).
7. “King's Childhood” Bosquet (a subject for the children's playground may be a famous carrousel on Montmartre. Charles Perrault's fairy-tale characters in fancy dresses, well-known to children all over the world — Puss-in-Boots, Blue Beard, Little Thumb, etc — are placed around the carrousel).
8. “Labyrinth” Bosquet (fragments of labyrinths of famous park and garden ensembles in France and Russia).
9. “Montparnasse” Bosquet (from French — “Mount Parnassus”. Apollo in the abode of nymphs. The bosquet is dedicated to the rule of Louis XIV – the Sun King).
10. “Hermitage” Bosquet — (from French — “a place of retreat” or “hermit's shelter”).
Second Nomination: “Gardens of the Republic”
11. “Temple of Love”, “Mon Plaisir” or “ Mon Bijou” (from French — “my pleasure”, “my jewel”)
12. “Philosophers' Grove” – tribute to French and Russian philosophers.
13. “Triumphal Arch” or “Étoile” (from French “Star” )
14. “White” — parterre
15. “Red” — parterre
16. “Blue” — parterre
14, 15, 16 – colour spectrum – symbol of France and Russia. Compositions on frames, ornamental parterres and floral compositions.
17. “Plainly Visible Paris” — (map of Paris. Miniature Symbols in topiary shaped forms)
18. “Provence Gardens” or “Vineyards” — (wine-making in France and Russia), “Provence Laces” (symbolic floral compositions, forged elements of minor garden forms, creation of a peculiar provincial atmosphere, textile compositions and floral design).
19. “Blue Water Lilies” — (Claude Monet) or “Northern Versailles” (fragments of the Peterhof ensemble, minor musical fountains).
20. Serene Harbour or “Mon Repos” (from French — “my rest”).
Hors concours:
Floral design of the central glade of the Maslyany Meadow (Champs-Élysées), five parterres
1. Collectors' gardens (flower gardening in France and Russia)
2. "Flowers of Paris" (compositions on frames – dresses, animals, ornamental parterres, symbols of France decorated with flowers, floral compositions).
3. “Flowers of St Petersburg” (compositions on frames – dresses, animals, ornamental parterres, symbols of St Petersburg decorated with flowers, floral compositions).
