Sowing Happiness

After practically acquainting us with their working methods last Friday in the Kunstraum pro arte, Véronique Faucheur and Marc Pouzol, two members of landscape artist trio Atelier Le Balto, delivered the theoretical background this Monday at their lunchtalk at the Alte saline Hallein. They presented 3 of their works, showingcasing gardens under different cicu

mstances.

The three gardens, one for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the other for the Ludwig Forum for international Art in Aachen and the third for the jewish Museum in Berlin, seem to be very different at first, but then one recognises in all of them the underlying working pattern of Véronique and Marc. For them, a garden is something that always grows. They would never import fully grown plants to have the whole garden up and running in a matter of months, but rather plant baby plants and then leave to grow over years and years, returning to their gardens to add something, or more often, to take it away. "The garden is a living organism that needs room to change and grow", as they put it. What they're not so fond of is the planning process. They make sketches of their ideas, but never precise plans as their ideas always change while they realise them. "We don't want to make plans, the time we spend drawing them can already be used on the garden." they explain their approach.

What they do love is getting their hands dirty. Lots of photos they showed of their gardens in progress pictured them cutting, planting and even moving stones themselves, actions they deeply enjoy as it makes them feel more connected to their gardens. Once they are finished with their class here in Hallein, they will return to Berlin to start their diaspora garden at the Jewish Museum there.

If you're interested in their gardens now, you can visit the one in Berlin starting this October, have a look at the backyard of the Kunstraum pro arte in Hallein, or simply visit their class at the Alte Saline Hallein on our open day this Friday, the 26th of August, starting at 2 pm. [mp]