Rendez-vous aux jardins 2025 - Cairns ‘in-situ’ at the Jaÿsinia Alpine Botanic Garden

As part of the Rendez-vous aux Jardins 2025, organised by the French Ministry of Culture from 6 to 8 June 2025, the Jardin botanique alpin La Jaÿsinia will be welcoming Pascal Levaillant, a plastic artist-botanist.

Cairns ‘in-situ at the Jaÿsinia, by Pascal Levaillant, Artist and author These stone sculptures, vertical and ephemeral mosaics, invite the viewer to abandon the horizon and the panorama, transforming our perception of the landscape and allowing us to make it our own more intimately. The precarious, ephemeral nature of these stacks of stones contrasts with the placidity of the surrounding countryside. Made of natural elements, simple stones, they are nonetheless man-made constructions, erected at least as far back as the Neolithic period, and which today produce an effect of incongruity. These constructions are more of a pretext for offering the spectator an in-depth reflection on the botanical garden of the Jaÿsinia and an invitation to dialogue with its nature, in a balance between wildness and orderliness. The idea is to offer visitors a moment of disconnection from the accelerating pace of the world, and to reflect on the sense of truth that can be gained from seeing nature in its wild, ordered state, yet so far removed from our frenetic daily lives.