Deceptive gardens – Vietnam, 2025
A residency at Villa Saïgon in 2025 allows me to travel around Vietnam and immerse myself in nature. I meet all kinds of people, profound to the point of gravity. The postures are silent and simple, and no one reveals themselves completely.
While this relationship with animals is mainly utilitarian in the countryside, it is sometimes tinged with affection and discreet complicity. It is often permeated by Buddhist philosophy, which celebrates the harmony between man and nature, as in this saying: “Humans and animals are companions on the long path of life.”
This project opened the doors to lush gardens, veritable intimate sanctuaries, where nature unfolds in a profusion of greens. Like a natural camouflage, these greens evoke the jungle, war and guerrilla warfare, but also the secret recesses of the soul. For in these dense foliage, under every leaf and behind every flower, lurk buried emotions, silent thoughts, invisible attachments. Sometimes, this intimacy becomes subterranean, sometimes plant camouflage serves to preserve – to protect what is precious, discreet, intimate.
The garden then becomes a mirror of the soul : a place where we hide and protect the essence of who we are. A space that is both exterior and interior, where a silent dance is played out between man and animal, nature and spirit – a choreography of lights, gestures and glances.
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