Québec City, Quebec, Canada

Conceived by the Atelier Pierre Thibault, architect, and the Société du 400e anniversaire de Québec, the competition for the Ephemeral Gardens of the 400th constitutes an artistic event where creators from various horizons were invited to conceive and realize an outside space around a general theme and by means of mediums combining various elements, among which the vegetable and mineral materials, light, sound and smell. Following the November 2006 launch, 96 propositions were received coming from Canada, the United Kingdom, France and the United States adding up to 240 candidacies of professional creators and newcomers, architects, landscape architects and visual artists.

The main objective of the Ephemeral Gardens of the 400th was to allow the public to have a multi-sensory and evolutionary experience, while being a complement to the other portions of the programming in the exploitation of the theme: " ARCHIPELAGO OF MEETINGS ON THE BIG TORTOISE " and of three big subjects: " there, where the river narrows "; " Your history, my history, our history "; " cultural sowings ".

Inspired by history, current events, urban or social problems, the Ephemeral Gardens of the 400th as constructed and planted were conceived by 11 teams of emergent and established creators. Five of these teams were selected by a jury, six others having personally been invited to participate. The subjects evoked go from a reflection on heritage or the appropriation of the public space, to evoking the survival of the First Nations, by way of a place of flavours and experiments for children.

The participants had to respect a realization budget of $20 000Cdn as well as an assembly and installation period of 40 days prior to the official opening June 10th, 2008.

(From competition's documentation)

This competition is in the archiving phase, thank you for your understanding