Winter garden
February 6 - April 13, 2019
Greenhouses represent the dream of an open roof, a space where the longing for a never-ending summertime and the reconciliation with nature converge.
Artexte’s little Sunroom evokes this imaginary paradise that synthesizes humans and nature, while relating to Victorian colonial conservatories filled with “exotics” for study, research, food supply, or sometimes just pleasure. But the Sunroom is also indicative of contemporary concerns such as healthy and clean working environments, namely relying on the ability of plants to remove organic chemicals from indoor air and define ambiances that help reduce stress, increase productivity or simply induce well-being.
The presumed beneficial aspects of greenery in a working/reading setting are contrasted by a space with relatively unfavourable conditions for plants—a place with limited light and humidity that was never meant to host a garden. The selection of plants that defines the Sunroom, with species indigenous of Asia, Africa and Latin America, responds to these unfavourable site conditions, but also to a limited market offer (already tuned to difficult non-ideal site-conditions such as indoor work spaces) and to low-maintenance criteria.
Accompanying the exhibition Inside/Outside curated by Karla McManus, the Sunroom allows visitors to enter into an impossible landscape, a merely atmospheric experience that might enlighten them or simply allow them to dream of the soon to come springtime.
Please don’t stay outside.
Carlos Ipser is a Spanish landscape architect, trained in Berlin, Germany, where he collaborated in the design of public spaces and private gardens. Since his move to Montréal in 2012, he has been working mainly in the design of private gardens with a focus on creating atmospheres, always emphasizing the potential of plants as a central design element.