14th International Garden Festival

The International Garden Festival is issuing a call for proposals to select designers to create the new contemporary gardens for its 14th edition. This international call for proposals is open to all landscape architects, architects, designers and artists, from Canada and abroad. Designers may submit their proposal as individuals or form inter-disciplinary and/or multinational teams. No theme is imposed to candidates who are invited to submit projects that will live memorable experiences to visitors.

For complete information on this call for proposals, those interested should consult the web site: www.projects.internationalgardenfestival.ca

The Festival will be held from June 21 to September 29, 2013 at the Reford Gardens, in Grand-Metis, Quebec, Canada.

The International Garden Festival is recognized as one of the most important events of its kind in North America and one of the leading annual garden festivals in the world. Since 2000, hundreds of thousands of visitors have discovered more than one hundred contemporary and ephemeral gardens created by designers from 15 countries. The Festival is a unique forum for innovation and experimentation and an exceptional showcase and launching pad for participating designers from a host of disciplines. It provides an annual rendez-vous for admirers of contemporary gardens and design as well as offering a unique space for those involved in the renewal of this art form. This artistic and tourism event also gives visitors a chance to discover inspiring spaces bringing together the visual arts, architecture, design, landscape and the environment.

The Festival encourages participating designers to explore all facets of the garden, from the physical setting (site and context) to creating a range of sensory, emotional and intellectual experiences for the visitor. The Festival sees the garden as a space for creative interaction, while not negating its botanical and horticultural dimensions. The Festival imagines the garden as a multi-sensorial space and encourages designers to consider the visitor’s experience in the design of the garden, provoking interaction, participation, exchange and reflection.

The Festival is an opportunity to compare and contrast approaches and engage in a critical examination of the theory and practice of the art of gardens, offering a host of points of view on this contemporary art form to a broad and diversified audience. The goal of the event is to stimulate new creation by presenting temporary projects that question the very idea of the garden in light of its history and its place in today’s society while also allowing visitors to enjoy new sensory experiences.

Deadline: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2012.