The garden is literally a lifelong source of joy and inspiration
Garden, cultivated.
14.05.22
Text, Veerle Devos
With the famous sentence ‘Il faut cultiver notre jardin’ Voltaire concluded Candide.
The French philosopher advises us on what we can do to change and improve the imperfect world we live in and the imperfect human beings we are. The idea is to start with our own little garden, which symbolizes the inner landscape of our psyche.
Anne-Laure Pilet has always been very active in the exploration and maintenance of her inner landscape, and as a curator she has a natural preference for artists who have a similar inclination and whose work contains profound life stories. In addition to being a metaphor, the garden is also literally a lifelong source of joy and inspiration for Anne-Laure: “Flowers have always been central to my life. I draw inspiration from the warm nest I grew up in, where flowers and decoration, beautiful objects and elegance were part of daily life. My mother lived out her passion for flowers in the lush garden of our house in the Provence. Everything I do goes back to that sense of beauty and sensitivity for nature I inherited. It is therefore also a strong emotional given, which I have deepened and developed in the course of my life, and which I can now bring out through the artists whose work I present in the gallery. Often, the works of my choice are white. White symbolises the energies that have always pushed me forward: purity and positivity."
