FESTIVAL VIVACES ! #9
Le geste de jardiner
Programme conceived and produced by the association Pépins production and the Consulat de la Terre
From 10:30 am to 7 pm
The ninth edition of Festival Vivaces! will explore our relationship as gardeners to plants in Le geste de jardiner, or “the gesture of gardening”. Le geste addresses our human posture and our way of being with the plants we cultivate in our gardens, past and present: between contemplation and intervention, action and letting things be, and supporting and taking the lead, this year’s festival explores our role in gardens.
Since 2018, the Festival Vivaces ! has been giving plants a voice in the Jardins passagers at La Villette. An annual gathering for the great gardening community and for everyone curious about nature.
Around its perennial plant market, the festival offers, each year, a discovery trail providing a different perspective on the plant world and its interactions with the rest of the living world.
La 9è édition du Festival explores, through le Geste de jardiner, our relationship with plants as gardeners, bringing together bodily involvement, lived experience, and our relationship with the living world.
Le geste first questions human postures and our way of being with plants, whether in an open-ground garden or in pots, throughout history, today, and in the face of a changing climate: to contemplate or to act, to do or to let be, to dominate or to accompany… for a garden that is constrained, guided, or free? …
The act—or the absence of action—and what it reveals about the gardener’s psychology and about society.
At the Jardins passagers
Paid admission
The Gardeners’ Market
From 10:30 a.m. onwards, continuously
THE NURSERIES:
• Botanic art paysage, mixed plants and rare varieties
• Gérard Pontet du CCVS (Conservatoire des Collections Végétales Spécialisées) and his caudex plants and other botanical curiosities
• Le Jardin du Morvan, hardy and robust perennials
• Les Jardinier.e.s à vélo, plants and bulbs, eco-friendly urban gardening advice
• Pariciflore, wild plants from the Paris Basin, grown in Seine-Saint-Denis
• Patrick Nicolas, climbing plants and sempervivum
• Pépins production, neighborhood nurseries of Greater Paris
• Saveurs Vivaces, edible perennials
Talks & Meetings
• 11 a.m. – Pruning After a Heatwave: Life-Saving Gestures for Plants
An opening walk led by Pascal Prieur, an expert in the principles of pruning shrubs according to plant architecture. He will be joined by Thibault Rouet, gardener, botanist and landscape designer, who will share his experience of gardening practices in an era of climate disruption. Come and ask your questions!
Pascal Prieur will be signing copies of his books after the talk.
• 3 p.m. – Gestures and Care for the Soil, from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment: Tacit Knowledge or Acquired Knowledge?
What can we say about how the act of gardening has evolved throughout history, both in terms of the spaces that are gardened and their uses, as well as the techniques and tools involved? Let’s focus on one particular gesture: “digging the earth”…
With Tassanee Alleau, PhD in History, Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Tours.
Workshops
From 2 p.m. onwards, continuously
THE CREATIVE GESTURE
• From 2 p.m. onwards, continuously – DIY! Make your own origami seed packets and paper seedling pots with Françoise Faury.
Registration required
• 3 p.m. – Dream Up and Draw Your Garden Like a Landscape Designer, by Sandrine Tellier
• 4:30 p.m. – “Please, Draw Me a Tree…” by Mélanie Foissac
GARDENING GESTURES — registration required
• 2:15 p.m. – The Gardener’s Warm-Up for Everyone, by Les Incertains (see Performances).
• 3:30 / 5 p.m. – Gestures in the Vegetable Garden, Growing Vegetables, with Aurélie and Aude
• 3:30 / 5 p.m. – Gestures in the Ornamental Garden, Gardening with Perennials and Shrubs with Pierre-Henri Lafont
• 4 p.m. – Why, When and How to Prune Your Plants? with Pascal Prieur
• 2-6:30 p.m. – Become a Gardener for Real! by Axel Equilbey
Exhibitions and Installations
From 10:30 a.m. onwards, continuously
THE TOOL SHED
• Body Movements, Ancestral Gestures and Tool Lineages
Tool installation by Marlène Bourderon, visual artist working at the intersection of art and science, and gardener.
• 14:50 / 16:50 The Gesture and the Tool … 10 minutes to discover, with the artist, how the tool shed is organised.
• Back to the Future with the Designers of Super Solide
Presentation of prototypes of non-mechanised tools designed for small spaces.
• Maintaining Your Tools / Movements and Postures
Quick tips from Robin Peny, landscape gardener, on tool maintenance, movements and postures.
THE GESTURE IN THE NURSERY
Sketchbook by Jean-Marc Vulbeau, created at the Flore Urbaine nursery of Pépins production.
“THE GARDEN IS MY KINGDOM”, AT THE GROTTE DES MERVEILLES
Video portraits exploring the importance of gardening in refugee and internally displaced persons’ camps affected by war, with Lemon Tree Trust.
The Discovery Trail – The Science of Gardening
From 2 p.m. onwards, continuously
Whether we swear by vegetable gardens or ornamental plants, what guides our actions? What happens at the heart of a plant?
Let’s take another look at the way we garden.
• Awakening the Seed
• To Water or Not to Water?
• Multiply Them! Taking Cuttings + Trying Your Hand at Grafting
• To Weed or Not to Weed?
• The Right Tool for the Job
• Cabinet of Curiosities and Gardeners’ Secrets
The Guided Planting Platform
2–6:30 p.m.
Come and repot your plants on site! Pots, potting soil and expert advice are provided (pay what you can)!
• Flash session with Carole Lecaillon, instructor at the École Supérieure de Jardin du Potager du Roi
• Free plant storage service and bicycle delivery (paid service, subject to availability)
Performances
THE GREEN THUMB AND THE ALERT FOOT, by Les Incertains
• 2:15 p.m. – 1st session: The Gardener’s Warm-Up
Come sow a few seeds of physical culture in your garden, through movement and music!
• 5:30 p.m. – 2nd session: Dance, Music and Potting Soil Performance, On the Fly
Will they prune each other? To find out, follow Les Incertains into the heart of the garden…
Gardening Impromptus
Fake and the Use of Fakes by Stéphane Rozet
Are We Gardening, or… Are We Being Gardened? by Stéphane Schler
At the Halle de Rouvray
Free admission
Gardening, an Existential Act
From 2 p.m. onwards
The act of gardening is not simply a “technical” gesture to grow or maintain a garden; it is also an act whose impact extends to ourselves, our well-being, our health… Come and experience it for yourself in these two workshops.
• Flower Seed-Saving and Fragrance Workshops
with Racines, Sème Sème and Fédération française Jardins Nature et Santé, community initiatives promoting the therapeutic benefits of plants
• Children’s Workshop for ages 6 and up
with Lemon Tree Trust, which transforms refugee and displaced persons’ camps through gardening
Around the Plants
• Parc Bookshop – Actes Sud
• Botanique Éditions Tool Shop
Food & Refreshments
• Bistrot La Timbale
Snacks, lunch, afternoon treats, hot and cold drinks.
• Des Regards Community Microbrewery
Sodas made with locally grown and produced plants.
The Consulat de la Terre
The Carnival of the Living, or Terrestrial Symbiosis
• 3:15 / 4:15 p.m. – “The Taste of Pairings” Cooking Workshop by Aline can cook
Duration: 45 min • Registration required • Ages 6+ / adult-child pairs • Limited capacity (6 pairs)
• 3:30 / 4 / 4:30 p.m. – Storytelling: “Atta Boire” with Bougier Toto
Duration: 20 min • Registration required • Ages 8+ • Limited capacity (30 people)
• 5 p.m. – Roundtable: “Coalitions: Joining Forces with the Living to Inhabit the Earth” – with Sophie Gosselin, philosopher, and Malo Legrand, artist in residence at the Kerminy estate
Duration: 1 hour • Ages 14+ • Limited capacity (30 people)
• 6 p.m. – Screening and Discussion: “Exposome”
Duration: 20 min • Documentary by Jack Farman • Ages 14+ • Limited capacity (30 people)
Please note: During the VIVACES! festival, the usual children’s play area in the Halle de Rouvray will not be available. It will reopen on Sunday, October 11.
Practical information
Jardins passagers
Metro
Line 5 - Porte de Pantin station
Tramway
Line 3b - Porte de Pantin station
Bus
Bus 75, 151 - Porte de Pantin stop
La Halle de Rouvray
Métro
Ligne 5 - Porte de Pantin
Tram
Tram 3b - Porte de Pantin
Bus
Bus 75, 161 - Porte de Pantin
Bike Chap
Vélib' docking points
Bike racks
Bike racks are available inside the Espace Chapiteaux area. You may leave your electric bike there with the battery attached.
Parking
Q-Park
Philharmonie
Q-Park
Cité de la Musique - La Villette
Q-Park
Cité de la Musique - Conservatoire
Parking
Cité des Sciences
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