© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
I visited Anne Immelè's exhibition in Paris, at Galerie Madé, which is contextual to the launch of the publication dedicated to her project on Riesthal Gardens, awarded by the Urbanautica Institute Awards in 2020. The French photographer and curator gets us close to a singular experience of urban gardens, a small community microcosm where fruits and vegetables and a relationship with the land. These practices, as she reminds us: "is closely connected with the period of industrialization and urbanization during the 19th century when a large number of people migrated from the rural areas to the cities. Today, most allotment gardens are on land owned by the municipality which rents it to an association." Like the organization of green-fingered citizens, which Anne is also a part of.
Installation view, 'Jardins du Riesthal', at Galerie Madé, 2022
© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
This series of photographs is not a reportage; we do not see any gardener in action. The project, instead, reflects the sensations of the author, a personal experience, a lyrical portrait of a place, of being in a world as if suspended outside the daily rush. The Riesthal Gardens are a kind of promise, the announcement of a paradise. There is a silent stillness, an almost palpable serenity, peaceful gazes, children climbing trees, and a wheelbarrow full of brushwood resting on a lawn. What does all this mean? First, a simple possibility: "Bringing together citizens from different social classes and origine, the Riesthal Gardens allows social diversity around the sharing of a common desire: building a garden and growing its fruits and vegetables." A common desire is already a modest revolution, a social fuse, a flame of hope.
Installation view, 'Jardins du Riesthal', at Galerie Madé, 2022
© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
There is more. There is a cure, and it is a shared cure. A positive contagion. Everyone can manage the productivity of a small batch. Everyone contributes through abilities, ideas, and within rules of coexistence and respect. This set of small environmental efforts represents a tangible idea of a differently sustainable society. "For our part, in the collective adventure of our land parcel, we let nature act, overflow into a moving garden, in constant re-configuration thanks to wandering plants that are so beneficial to insects."
Installation view, 'Jardins du Riesthal', at Galerie Madé, 2022
Installation view, 'Jardins du Riesthal', at Galerie Madé, 2022
© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
There are children playing amidst all these plants, these intentions that go beyond the logic of commercial commodification and exploitation of the soil. And this is not a form of non-coercive cultural reproduction. Is this a spontaneous (natural) way of learning, of cultivating knowledge? Isn't this a nice way to experience the world?Anne writes: "Thus the series relates the time of childhood in the gardens.The pleasure of the time spent in these gardens is the best way to transmit knowledge about the growth of plants and a benevolent attention to all species that sustain life."
© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
Installation view, 'Jardins du Riesthal', at Galerie Madé, 2022
Like Hortus conclusus, these spaces manifest a sense of proportion and the need to balance with limited resources. A miniature landscape that offers us an alternative model not only of sustenance but of growth, or perhaps of degrowth, of pondered satisfaction of needs, a chance of awareness, an observatory, a different position in the environment.
Installation view, 'Jardins du Riesthal', at Galerie Madé, 2022
© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
© Anne Immelé from 'Riesthal Gardens'
And Anne's photographs are deliberately soft in their contrasts, feature gentle poses and gestures, a mystical light, and express an underlying calm. There is peace in all of this. And there is peace to observe the prints shown at Made Gallery, at number 30, Rue Mazarine, almost according to a music sheet. And there is peace in leafing through this book, mirroring a delicate but responsible-looking philosophy.
© Book 'Jardin du Riesthal', Anne Immelé
© Book 'Jardin du Riesthal', Anne Immelé
© Book 'Jardin du Riesthal', Anne Immelé
© Book 'Jardin du Riesthal', Anne Immelé
© Book 'Jardin du Riesthal', Anne Immelé
© Book 'Jardin du Riesthal', Anne Immelé
© Book 'Jardin du Riesthal', Anne Immelé
LINKS
Anne Immelé
Médiapop èditions
Galerie Madé
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