International Garden Festival 2022 at Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens: ADAPTATION

The International Garden Festival is launching its call for applications for Canadian and international landscape architects, artists, and multidisciplinary teams to participate in its 23rd edition, themed ADAPTATION. The Festival will take place from June 25 to October 2, 2022.

Adaptation

Our 23rd edition is seeking innovative projects that will contribute to the need to change. The climate change events in northern climates affect our garden more than others. In 2021 alone, we had too little rain and too much rain. Our spruce forest has been decimated by the spruce bud worm. The cool temperatures and heavy snow cover that have allowed the site to host one of the largest collections of ornamental plants in Quebec is now threatened by hot summer weather and the absence of snow. The Festival site, like many other shoreline landscapes along the St. Lawrence River, is battered by erosion. COVID-19 is forcing adaptation – in our habits, our parks, and our playgrounds. Pathways have been changed – one way is now a signpost as common for humans as it was once for our vehicles. Can gardens adapt? Or are they the last bastion of freedom?

We are adapting. Are others? How can we lead adaptation? How can the garden installations respond to change?

Submit your application Each year, the International Garden Festival receives more than 150 submissions from designers around the world. The jury will have the difficult task of selecting only five of the entries.

Are you a designer with a project related to the theme? Download the guidelines and submit your project before Tuesday, January 11, 2022 by 5:00 pm here ↓

www.projets.festivalinternationaldejardins.ca

The International Garden Festival, is the largest contemporary garden festival in North America. Since its creation in 2000, nearly 200 gardens have been presented in situ at Grand-Métis and in extramural locations in Canada and abroad. The Festival takes place on a site adjacent to the historic gardens, allowing for a dialogue between history and modernity, between conservation, tradition and innovation. Each year, the event features twenty creations by approximately seventy architects, landscape architects and designers from various disciplines. The event is presented with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and Canadian Heritage.

About the Reford Gardens

A National Historic Site of Canada and a Quebec heritage site, the Reford Gardens are a must-see stop for anyone visiting the Gaspé and the Lower St. Lawrence. A cultural space and tourist destination for more than 50 years, the Reford Gardens are an iconic landscape that offers visitors soothing and innovative experiences of connection to nature. Located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Mitis rivers, they were designed by the adventurous horticulturist Elsie Reford from 1926 to 1958 and are listed as one of North America's most famed gardens and one of the world's top 150 great gardens. Hydro-Québec has been a partner of the Jardins de Métis since 1999.