Cabotans maraîchers > Stéphane Larcin et Baptiste Demeulemeester, 2019

On an old cultivated plot of land bordered by a stream and known as ” Grand-mère salades “, the landscape artists Baptiste Demeulemeester and Stéphane Larcin have set up the stage for their green theatre. This project is rooted in one of the traditions dear to the heritage of Amiens, the Cabotans, the legendary marionettes operated by rods and strings, whose adventures are still enjoyed in popular theatre in Picardy today. They were also inspired by the repertoire of author Edouard David (1863-1932) in his collection Chés Hortillonnages which mixes plays about the Cabotans with poems on the everyday life of the men and women who worked in the Hortillonages. The two designers have created a garden which serves a theatre that nourishes both the body, and the spirit. In this landscaped amphitheatre, the visitor enters the backstage: surrounded by meadows, by benches of horticultural terraces, with their back to vegetable plots in the form of a labyrinth, a motif of the art of gardens that brings us back to human doubt… As for the Cabotans, they come alive in the form of plant structures in braided willow where climbing plants grow. Lafleur, their hero, has only to climb on the boards!