© Manon Biscosi
The Hortillonnages site in Amiens was formed by the widening of the Somme River over the silt of the alluvial plain. Since its formation, it has been a fertile landscape of peninsulas and islands connected by waters that are both flowing and still, as reflected in the unique atmosphere of the place. The identity of the site has developed around several balanced dynamics. It is a semi-natural environment that has now stabilized: a suburban area with recent leisure activities alongside older agricultural uses, as well as practices of bank restoration and waterway dredging.
The installation is located in a space that exemplifies the delicate balance at work in the territory: on the banks of an island. More than the peninsulas, the islands concentrate the site’s intrinsic characteristics and are even more vulnerable. The location of the artwork highlights this space of relative balance between the emergent land and the water’s surface.
Isola, from the Latin for solitude, encircles the island area. It guides the gaze toward this patch of land: the landscape as an artistic space, while also allowing it to be perceived as a “biological reserve”: the landscape as an ecological environment.
Isola takes the form of an ellipse above the water, whose gently curved surface can host living elements: stagnant water, germinating seeds, and the resting of insects, amphibians, or birds.
The installation protects the small island territory: it acts as a pre-barrier, slowing the erosion of the banks and helping retain the soil. Over time, it becomes a modest piece of landscape — an extension of the island’s environment and a floating object between the aquatic and terrestrial worlds. For visitors, Isola encourages a curious approach to the isolated island without stepping onto its ground.
Its fixed position emphasizes the variations in water levels: it sits thirty centimeters above the water surface in homage to the height of exceptional floods in the area. Its disappearance is entirely possible.
Isola thus captures the landscape’s movements: the shifting boundaries of land and the flow of water. It accentuates the blurred, living contours of the island and opens the way for a weightless exploration around this small patch of land that embodies the identity of the Hortillonnages site.