Un grand ensemble grimpant
Festival international des jardins, les hortillonnages à Amiens, 2025
https://www.artetjardins-hdf.com/
“My approach is to create a plastic form as much as
a situation or experience. The resources for a sculpture are those found on
site, and involve an encounter with the people living near the exhibition site.
This project proposes a trellis architecture, built from materials collected from the people of Amiens. These include used rod-shaped objects such ascurtain poles, rulers, fishing rods, oars, tool handles, arrows, bicycle pumps, car antennas, bamboo and various utensils.
Linked together according to size and weight, these elements form a rhizomic whole, a structure of stakes that support and solidify each other. Designed to accommodate the growth of climbing vegetables - beans, peas, squash, chayotes or cucumbers - this construction can also be crossed by visitors.
Thanks to a call for contributions, the construction elements were
collected in the Hortillonnages area, but also in more distant neighborhoods: from private homes, public institutions, garages, cellars or attics, where these objects had sometimes been slumbering for years. They represent places as much as their inhabitants, creating a concentrated geography composed of individual elements from all directions.
Each object carries with it a story, whether trivial or serious, forgotten or known to all. The resulting ensemble reflects the diversity and complexity of a community, at once harmonious and contradictory.
The device functions as a horticultural tool. The construction becomes a suspended, vertical vegetable garden, allowing the development of climbing plants reaching three to four meters in height. Based on this structure, this vertical vegetable garden unifies and energizes the contrasting ensemble of collected objects. The notion of tuteur is the poetic essence. A harvest of ripe vegetables will give rise to events or distributions, bringing the loop initiated by the “harvest” of objects full circle.” Jan Kopp, june 2025
This project is part of a series of sculptures entitled “Les grands
ensembles”, in which the artist experiments with different forms
of collective assembly. This type of construction has already been presented in various venues, including La Criée - center d'art contemporain in Renne (2014), La Comédie de Caen (2023), as well as the Villa du Parc - center d'art contemporain in Annemasse and the Kunstverein Ebersberg in Germany in 2025.
With each new version, the result remains unpredictable and
impossible to design in advance, as the final shape depends on the elements collected along the way. Surprise, unpredictability and improvisation are at the heart of this approach.
Project realized with Atelier Bivouac
Images : Un Grand ensemble grimpant", Jan Kopp_A&J/HDF ©Yann Monel
And thank you Laurie Dall’Ava for your images
This project proposes a trellis architecture, built from materials collected from the people of Amiens. These include used rod-shaped objects such ascurtain poles, rulers, fishing rods, oars, tool handles, arrows, bicycle pumps, car antennas, bamboo and various utensils.
Linked together according to size and weight, these elements form a rhizomic whole, a structure of stakes that support and solidify each other. Designed to accommodate the growth of climbing vegetables - beans, peas, squash, chayotes or cucumbers - this construction can also be crossed by visitors.
Thanks to a call for contributions, the construction elements were
collected in the Hortillonnages area, but also in more distant neighborhoods: from private homes, public institutions, garages, cellars or attics, where these objects had sometimes been slumbering for years. They represent places as much as their inhabitants, creating a concentrated geography composed of individual elements from all directions.
Each object carries with it a story, whether trivial or serious, forgotten or known to all. The resulting ensemble reflects the diversity and complexity of a community, at once harmonious and contradictory.
The device functions as a horticultural tool. The construction becomes a suspended, vertical vegetable garden, allowing the development of climbing plants reaching three to four meters in height. Based on this structure, this vertical vegetable garden unifies and energizes the contrasting ensemble of collected objects. The notion of tuteur is the poetic essence. A harvest of ripe vegetables will give rise to events or distributions, bringing the loop initiated by the “harvest” of objects full circle.” Jan Kopp, june 2025
This project is part of a series of sculptures entitled “Les grands
ensembles”, in which the artist experiments with different forms
of collective assembly. This type of construction has already been presented in various venues, including La Criée - center d'art contemporain in Renne (2014), La Comédie de Caen (2023), as well as the Villa du Parc - center d'art contemporain in Annemasse and the Kunstverein Ebersberg in Germany in 2025.
With each new version, the result remains unpredictable and
impossible to design in advance, as the final shape depends on the elements collected along the way. Surprise, unpredictability and improvisation are at the heart of this approach.
Project realized with Atelier Bivouac
Images : Un Grand ensemble grimpant", Jan Kopp_A&J/HDF ©Yann Monel
And thank you Laurie Dall’Ava for your images
