Jardin Essentiel

Initiated by Brussels Environment in 2006, Parckdesign is a unique biennial event enhancing social and environmental awareness and citizen participation to create new green spaces in the city. Jardin Essentiel (Essential Garden) is the title of the 2016 edition, which opened on July 14th, 2016 at Duden Park. Located in the municipality of Forest in Brussels, this 19th century monumental park play as the epicentre for a wide range of activities involving residents and neighbours, social and cultural associations. Additional satellite events take place in other parks of the city (Elisabeth Park, Carré Tillens and Neerpede, Tournay-Solvay Park).

The curators of the 2016 edition, Gilly Karjevsky, Judith Wielander and Alexander Roemer, have put forward the question: “In what ways does human activity relate to nature today?” Assuming the herbal garden as a site for medicine and nutrition, this question extends from our gardens and parks, to our kitchens, our hospitals, and to a variety of cultural expressions. The cultural and social role of green spaces, the quest for the essential, the increasing commitment of local communities, are all issues acting as a source of investigation.

A multitude of local and international artists, architects and designers contribute with performances and artistic interventions, a night school and discursive events during two months. The Jardin Essentiel is a garden of medicinal and aromatic plants, conceived by the Brussels based Dutch artist Rudy Luijters, and planted in the months preceding the opening of Parckdesign2016 at Duden Park.

More into the park, at the Plateau du Midi, above the garden, are the pavilions/laboratories created by the architects PioveneFabi (Milan/Brussels) and the multidisciplinary design studio The Decorators (London), which constitute the centre of the festival and generate different moments of encounters around the scientific and cultural practices of herbs and plants.

The pavilions include a performance space, a cafe, and a distillation laboratory that invites people to learn about and test different forms of extraction, composition and solvents, and to gradually transform the plants into a variety of products. As an experimental space, Parckdesign2016 extends beyond the site of Duden Park to create satellite events and interventions throughout Brussels. And so the question of culture and nature will be echoing all over Brussels: what is essential to our contemporary urban lives? What do we make of our parks today?

until 11 September 2016
Parckdesign 2016
curated by Gilly Karjevsky, Judith Wielander e Alexander Roemer
Parc Duden
Square Lainé, Bruxelles