Théâtre Hortus – Collectif YAM, 2024

Perceived and designated as an exceptional “natural” area, the current face of the hortillonnages has been shaped for centuries by human activities, most of which have since disappeared. To observe the site is like looking at a landscape that has been shaped over time. This exhibit focuses on this paradox and questions the distinction between natural and artificial, wild and developed, a place for production and a place for performances.

Théâtre Hortus is designed as a play in which each visitor has a part to play as they contemplate and intervene in the environmental landscape which is a living setting. Actor or spectator, the roles are not fixed. Everyone is involved in the production of this landscape in its current state. A landscape exists through the eyes of those who contemplate it, like a play to its audience. Thanks to a proscenium form, the exhibit shows the play that is played out daily and questions the roles of each person.

The symmetry of the installation suggests a theatre where neither the backstage nor the audience is concealed by the curtain. It is therefore difficult to know which side everyone is on and who is who. The structure is made from regional wood in a traditional half-timbered style with a textile infill. The textile, which is the same as the theatre curtain, is made from linen grown and woven in Normandy and handdyed in the region using woad the emblematic plant of Amiens.