21st International Garden Festival Call for Proposals
21st International Garden Festival Call for Proposals now is over!
The International Garden Festival, presented at the Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardensin the Gaspésie region of Québec, Canada is preparing its 21st edition and is issuing an international call for proposals to select designers who will create the new temporary gardens that will be presented from June 19, 2020.
About Competition
The International Garden Festival, presented at the Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardensin the Gaspésie region of Québec, Canada is preparing its 21st edition and is issuing an international call for proposals to select designers who will create the new temporary gardens that will be presented from June 19, 2020.
The International Garden Festival is recognized as one of the most important events of its kind in North America and one of the leading annual garden festivals in the world. Since 2000, more than one million visitorshave discovered over 190 contemporary and ephemeral gardens created by designers from 15 countries. This artistic and tourism event also gives visitors a chance to discover inspiring spaces bringing together the visual arts, architecture, design, landscape and the environment. The Festival is an annual rendez-vous for admirers of contemporary gardens and design as well as offering a unique creative space for those involved in the renewal of this art form.
For its 21st edition, the Festival has chosen ’Métissagesas’ its theme. Continuing the exploration of new ideas and new realms, the Festival is seeking to connect designers from various fields to favour a cross-breeding of practices and professions.
Métissages has historically had negative connotations. In the Canadian context, Métis were often looked down upon as an inappropriate crossing of hard borders of race and religion. In the inter-racial and inter-disciplinary culture of the 21st century, métissages can create unique forms of beauty. The interplay of practitioners and practices can confront differences and foster creativity. The physical and cultural cross-breeding enlivens and encourages the emergence of new practices and projects.
Cross-breeding in the context of contemporary gardens can be of practices (landscape architecture, garden design, architecture, visual arts, industrial design, cuisine and other fields of creative expression), plants (native or exotic) and materials (natural and manufactured). This mixity of approaches enriches and excites, creating new opportunities for exploration.
The interactive spaces chosen through this competition will enthrall and envelop visitors. The installations can incorporate activities and events. They will transform the visitor from viewer to active participant.
The Festival encourages participants to form multidisciplinary teams. Designers will be asked to imagine their garden for exhibition for at least two summers and to propose strategies for the repurposing or recycling of the garden or its materials after the end of its exhibition.
Applicants are limited to one proposal, either as individuals or as a team.
There is no entry fee to participate!
Eligibility
This call for proposals is open to all landscape architects, architects, artists and multidisciplinary teams from Canada and abroad. The Festival encourages participants to form multidisciplinary teams. Designers who have participated in one of the last three editions of the Festival are not eligible for this call for proposals.
Entry fees
There is no entry fee to participate!