In the Bois de Vincennes, there are the remains of a garden that bears witness to France’s colonial past and to that time when scientific research into horticultural crops was in full development on this site.
In 1907, the Tropical Agronomy Garden, organized a colonial exhibition. The main pavilions dedicated to certain French colonies were built for this occasion.
During the war of 14-18, the site was fitted out as a hospital for the soldiers of the Colonies and a mosque was built.
Subsequently, several memorials of the 14-18 war were erected, According to historian Robert Aldrich, “this is the most important memorial site for colonial soldiers of the Great War”.
In 1984 the garden was deserted by researchers who moved to Montpellier, leaving it at the mercy of everyone. But, in 2011, the Indochina pavilion was restored and that of Tunisia is in progress. The garden is currently evolving towards sustainable development and ecology.
For three years, I have walked this garden in all weather and all seasons, trying to capture the soul of this place, whose exoticism transports me and which despite its wounds, lives.
By superimposing photographs of today, images and postcards of the time, by mixing the present and the past, it is a journey of more than a century that this work offers.
It is the whole history of this garden, this architectural and landscape heritage, this testimony to a bygone era where human and scientific adventures, were omnipresent.
It is also the weight of events and finally, the way in which new generations have reappropriated the pavilions, leaving their traces. The transformation of this place which, despite the destruction, evolves but does not die.
These images were created, to get out of oblivion this little-known place and to discover through its metamorphoses, this atypical and fascinating garden.
Nathalie Tirot
Born in Nantes, she graduated in Arts (Sorbonne), and in 1986 from the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, photographic communication section. Nathalie Tirot is a professional photographer (reportages, portraits, social subjects) …) Her personal works have been noticed in the world of photography thanks to exhibitions in Paris, Holland and Spain. In 1988, she received the vocation award from the Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation and, in 1990, the City of Paris award.
Her stories are as varied as “Parisian Jazz Bars and Clubs”, ” Women out of the ordinary”, “Just above the water” … Nathalie Tirot has the rare talent of great photographers who instinctively know how to translate everyday life. in images of light.
Anne-Marie Bodson-Journalist
EXHIBITION
Nathalie Tirot : Un jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale à Paris – Un jardin oublié
from September 4 to 20, 2020
Carré des Coignard
150, Grande Rue Charles de Gaulle
94130 Nogent sur Marne.
https://ville-nogentsurmarne.com/culture-loisirs-sports/culture/lieux-culturels/carre-des-coignard/
BOOK
Nathalie Tirot
A tropical agronomy garden in Paris
Publisher: Association Photo # graphie
Selling price to the public (including VAT): € 16.00
56 pages; 19.00 x 26.00 cm; brooch
ISBN 978-2-492017-00-1
EAN 9782492017001
