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« Down to Earth »Exhibition

A new, more sensitive understanding of the soils we shape, which in turn shape our lives, our cities, and our landscapes.

The exhibition « Down to Earth » will present a made in the Île-de-France, living, large-format model of the Île-de-France region. At the surface, you’ll see the algae, mosses and lichens that grow in our forests, gardens and urban areas. A long geological cross-section of the Paris basin reveals what’s going on beneath our feet, accompanied by an explosive and experimental map designed by the Société d’objets cartographiques (SOC). The exhibition will showcase uncommon scales and overlooked resources in formats that are as spectacular as they are poetic, sensitive and scientific.

Exhibition by L’Institut Paris Region

Eric Garault/ L’Institut Paris Region
Pierre-Yves Brunaud/ L’Institut Paris Region
Amàco/ L’Institut Paris Region

« We have a great need for operations that resensitise, reimagine, repopulate the imagination », writes philosopher Isabelle Stengers in A common soil, published in 2019. The exhibition « Down to Earth » aims to respond to this call. It will reveal the links that unite Île-de-France’s geographic foundation, land use and soil use, so we can better understand how we are anchored to this territory. Geological materials have shaped the valleys and landscapes where human settlements have proliferated. The qualities of the soil have allowed the development of certain cultures, forests, vernacular architectures… This base constitutes our foundation on a daily basis. Understanding it better will allow us to better inhabit and live with it.

Cécile Diguet

Director of the department of Urban planning, Development and Territories at L’Institut Paris Region,exhibition curator

« Visible, invisible »Exhibition

The invention of new terroirs through a material and energetic approach to environments.

Faced with ecological emergency, new architectural approaches are emerging. More than ever, physical resources are seen as the starting point for spatial design. The Biennale will offer a space of discovery, exchange and sharing around the mechanisms that transform land, materials and energies - both visible and invisible - in the act of construction.

Displayed through the school of architecture as well as in the exceptional site of the Petite Ecurie, this exhibition is structured in three stages : a « monumenta » of material and energetic resources constituting the terroir of these creations (stone, earth, wood, water, sun, wind…); testimony to the ambitious practices underway in Île-de-France and elsewhere; a platform for sharing and experimentation in order to pursue this research together.

Exposition by Ecole national supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles

Credit Simon Boudvin
Credit Eva Le Roi
Credit Stéphane Ruchaud

« The cabin or the fire? ». In 1969, the critic Reyner Banham defined architecture as a dual strategy tied to an environment, illustrating this with the story of a tribe that « arrived one night to a camp well-stocked on wood ». To keep their body temperature stable during the night, the potential of this wood could be exploited using two methods: building a shelter – the structural solution – or fuelling a fire or hearth – the energetic solution.

Half a century later, as environmental stakes become more urgent, we invite you to rediscover this material-energetic reasoning used by architects in the creation of our living spaces’ adapted forms.

It’s also your turn to contribute to the creation of the visible and invisible aesthetics of new terroirs, rich and conscious of their resources and environments.

Guillaume Ramillien

Architect, exhibition curator

Nicolas Dorval-Bory

Architect, exhibition curator

« La Préséance du vivant »Exhibition

At the heart of the King’s vegetable garden, a committed reflection, both joyful and profund, on our current relationship with nature.

With « La Préséance du vivant », you will explore contemporary production of landscape , where ecosystems are at the centre of the projects. This exhibition-garden will propose an encounter, a weaving, between scientific knowledge ant the poetic wonder of our relationships with the others. It will highlight the diversity of our relationships with living beings and the richness of beings that inhabit this planet together. You will be able to find these reflections in an issue of Les Carnets du voyage and participate in the planting of a collaborative garden: « Le Potager des autres», at Potager du Roi. You will also be able to put yourself in the shoes of a landscape student who discovers how to "take care of the soil" in landscape projects with the exhibition "Projet(s)Terre(s)" that will present some of their achievements during their curriculum. By doing so, "La Préséance du vivant" is a true invitation to articulate the challenges of the garden to the global issues of protecting ecosystems.

A proposal of École nationale supérieure de paysage

Credit Fabien David
Credit Danillo Carasso
Credit Vincent Gravé

This exhibition will introduce you to the most cutting-edge landscaping projects on questions of ecology and the relationship to living things. At the King’s vegetable garden, you can also participate in the planting of the « Vegetable Garden of Others ». This garden, born from the labours of all those who wish to be involved, is an invitation to get to work. Come with your seeds, we’ll provide the tools, seeds, and seedlings you need to express your creativity alongside us so that together we can build a common knowledge of living things. On-site, you will find dishes made from ingredients harvested in the King’s vegetable garden. You will leave with a bit of the collective magic that will have given life to this garden.

Gilles Clément

Landscaper, exhibition curator

Miguel Georgieff

Atelier Coloco, exhibition curator

Pablo Georgieff

Atelier Coloco, exhibition curator

Nicolas Bonnenfant

Atelier Coloco, exhibition curator

« Terre! Land in sight! »Exhibition

Three large-format installations for a dialogue with the architecture of « Sud Global ».

Three Global Award for Sustainable Architecture winners from Mexico, Jordan and Thailand have designed life-sized installations. They will present their vision of architecture, based on the synergy between global and local knowledge: European green-tech and scarcity and climate sciences, perennial savoir-faire and self-development methods, global circulation of goods and circular economy. They’ll also question the role of the architect today. Rozana Montiel (Mexico) will emphasize the role of the architect as a political catalyst with the installation « Rise up for the sea! ». Ammar Khammash (Jordan) will develop the link between architect and universal synergies in the installation « In search of the horizon ». Boonserm Premthada (Thailand) will explore the relationship between the architect and living things with the installation « The elephant theatre ».

Exhibition by the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine

Credit Bangkok Project Studio
Credit Bangkok Project Studio
Credit Bangkok Project Studio

A hundred years ago, faced with the onset of the industrial era and the brutal emergence of the big city, Bauhaus architects took on the ambitious goal of « civilising the modern world at the pace of changing societies, » in the words of Walter Gropius. Why then, shouldn’t the architects of the 21st century take on the ambitious goal of preserving the future of the inhabited world at the pace of changing ecosystems? These three installations will be demonstrative, attractive and fun. They’ll allow you to better understand how architecture, by confronting the great rifts separating us from the 20th century, contributes to renewing the idea of progress, awakens societies’ hope and gives a face to this hope.

Jana Revedin

Architect, professor at École spéciale d’architecture, exhibition curator

« The Pavilion of the Grand Paris Express »Exhibition

An immersive exhibition about the biggest urban project completed in Europe.

This exhibition is in the form of a pavilion, inside of which a 360-degree film will be screened, retracing the thrilling construction site of the century. Around the pavilion, Dominique Perrault invited the artist JR to create an installation embodying the role of residents and future users found at the heart of this urban transformation project.

This exhibition was created to participate in the development of Greater Paris, as both a showcase of French and European savoir-faire in architecture, mobility, city planning, and culture, and as a symbol of the current transformations taking place in big cities.

Exhibition by La Société du Grand Paris

Credit Promio
Credit Dominique Perrault
Credit Dominique Perrault

Through this exhibition, French savoir-faire in infrastructure, architecture and city planning is under the spotlight, centred around the group of international architects, engineers, designers and artists that were involved, an homage to Europe and its capacity to produce large-scale metropolitan projects with strong environmental ambitions. The immersive journey through this pavilion offers visitors a unique vantage point in the middle of a work in progress, from the construction of a complex infrastructure to its influence on the diversity of the territories it crosses. As mobility becomes an essential issue for the future of cities around the world, this project meets up with all populations living in regional or global capitals.

At the heart of contemporary issues, I would like this exhibition we created to question and show the synergy of the different skill sets put in service of a model of metropolitan development, one that promotes the construction of a city that gives confidence to its population, that’s both dense and nice to live in, connected, diverse, attractive and sustainable.

Dominique Perrault

Architect, urban planner, member of l’Institut,
curator and designer of the pavilion

« Territories in Transformation »Exhibition

The Quartier de Gally project: an exploration of the fundamental role played by the soil in our territories in transformation.

The reconversion of 20th century industrial areas and the requalification of agricultural and peri-urban outskirts have sparked major changes over the past decades, making space for tomorrow’s public space to reinvent itself. And new challenges are already emerging in the outskirts of our cities, with the decline of commercial districts and their huge parking lots… So what’s there to do?

These transformations are closely linked to land movement, the definition of soil, and water management. The underlying processes are based on natural phenomena, but also on agricultural practices, and sometimes on civil engineering practices. From a regional scale to a city scale with its artificial land, these transformations establish specific physical cohesions where life takes hold.

Exposition by Michel Desvigne and Icade

Credit Agence MDP
Credit Agence MDP
Credit Agence MDP

When it comes to landscape, we often only talk about its protection. It would appear that transforming the landscape is considered suspect. Typically, when landscaping architects speak about “land” or “geography”, we tend to think of natural geography, when it’s actually about human geography, because our territory is largely shaped by human activities, practices and relations.

The observation of territories, of the interferences between natural and artificial phenomena, allows us to envisage new transformations. The challenge is not to embellish a difficult heritage, but to take advantage of the particularity of the configurations we see in order to respond to contemporary challenges.

Michel Desvigne

landscaper, exhibition curator

Exhibitions

« Down to Earth »Exhibition

A new, more sensitive understanding of the soils we shape, which in turn shape our lives, our cities, and our landscapes.

Cécile Diguet

« Visible, invisible »Exhibition

The invention of new terroirs through a material and energetic approach to environments.

Guillaume Ramillien

Nicolas Dorval-Bory

« La Préséance du vivant »Exhibition

At the heart of the King’s vegetable garden, a committed reflection, both joyful and profund, on our current relationship with nature.

Gilles Clément

Miguel Georgieff

Pablo Georgieff

Nicolas Bonnenfant

« Terre! Land in sight! »Exhibition

Three large-format installations for a dialogue with the architecture of « Sud Global ».

Jana Revedin

« The Pavilion of the Grand Paris Express »Exhibition

An immersive exhibition about the biggest urban project completed in Europe.

Dominique Perrault

« Territories in Transformation »Exhibition

The Quartier de Gally project: an exploration of the fundamental role played by the soil in our territories in transformation.

Michel Desvigne

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