Since its launch in September 2007, this multidisciplinary festival has brought groundbreaking contemporary art to a world-famous heritage site, including choreographic works, installations, projections and landscape art.
Organised by a not-for-profit association of culture-sector professionals, teachers and students from the ENSP (France's national college of landscape and garden design), in the superb setting of the royal kitchen garden at the Palace of Versailles, the festival explores the relationship between dance, landscape and horticulture with a programme that highlights the close historic and cultural links between the two disciplines and explores their techniques and concepts today.
Directed by dancer and choreographer Frédéric Seguette, in association with Jérôme Bel, the 2008 festival featured nine art projects and three installations. In 2009, Emmanuelle Huynh and Matthieu Doze presented dance works by Vaslav Nijinksy and Steve Paxton. Visual artists Virginie Yassef, Aurélie Godard and Jean-Luc Brisson created three works in situ, and the festival also featured a choreographic and culinary performance by Radhouane el Meddeb. Fifteen students from the ENSP performed (Faire) Cabane, a choreographic work by Anne Collod, encouraging artists and students to explore the nature of landscape. Annual support from the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès acknowledges the festival's twofold commitment to the contemporary arts and education.
