The Fête de la Science is an annual national event that celebrates science in all its forms. Organized since 1991, it aims to make science accessible to the general public, and in particular to young people, through workshops, conferences, exhibitions and interactive demonstrations.
In Paris, the Fête de la Science takes on a special dimension with dozens of participating sites. Museums and universities are transformed into experimental spaces where the popularization of science is the order of the day. From the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie to the Sorbonne University campus, via conferences and workshops in the heart of the capital, the event offers a unique immersion into the varied fields of science of all kinds.
The Jardins passagers, located in the Parc de la Villette, are a natural space in the heart of Paris, designed to promote biodiversity and environmental education. Created in 2001, these ecological gardens cover some 7,000 m² and invite visitors to discover rare and local plants.
At the Vivaces! festival, "Does the beauty of plants have a meaning? goes beyond our visual perception, and calls on our sense of smell. An archaic sense, the sense of smell has been passed down to us, almost unchanged, through evolution for
hundreds of millions of years. Yet it's the one that's largely forgotten in our contemporary society. Why do the scents of plants, flowers and leaves move us, how do plant odors reach us? Is there a functionality to be found in olfactory beauty?
> At 3:30 pm - Stroll with your nose in the wind... A neuroscience research director and a specialist in scents and fragrances cross paths in the Jardins passagers de La Villette.
"This flower smells so good!"
... In a garden, even before we recognize the plants we see, they strike our senses directly with the scents they emit, from the blooming flower to the leaf stimulated by the summer sun or the brush of an arm. From our intimate relationship with plant scents to the use of the odoriferous properties of plants since prehistoric times, mankind has always been fascinated by plant fragrances, to the point of seeking to reproduce and sublimate them.
How do plants release their scents into the air, how do they reach our nostrils and then our brains, and what is the source of the powerful power of scents to revive distant memories?
What is the place and role of the sense of smell in our sensory perceptions and in the memory we have of our own history?
Why do we each have different olfactory sensitivities: why is the perception of the scent of clary sage in the Jardins passagers wasteland (and the 3rd most widely cultivated perfume plant in France after lavender and lavandin) so divisive during guided tours of the Jardins passagers?
By the way, insects also have different olfactory appetites, depending on whether you're a fly, a butterfly (which also likes to land on droppings!), a hoverfly or a wild bee!...
With : Hirac Gurden, director of neuroscience research at the CNRS, a specialist in the study of the senses, particularly the sense of smell, and author of "Sentir. Comment les odeurs agissent sur notre cerveau", published by Les Arènes. Sarah Bouasse, specialist in odors and perfumes, freelance journalist and author of Par le bout du nez, une histoire intime des odeurs, published by Calmann-Levy.
For the 7th edition of the Festival Vivaces! in the Jardins passagers de La Villette, the discovery trail explores the beauty codes of plants and deciphers the meaning of the signals we perceive in the lives of plants and animals, far beyond the aesthetic criteria of our human eyes.
6 stages to marvel and be moved, beyond the visible, by the ingenuity of plants, and to penetrate "plantality", the way plants are in the world. Understand plant life to better garden the living, from the structure of the plant as seen by the gardener to its micro-organization as observed under the microscope. An "outdoor lab" will be dedicated to the observation of plant cells. A scientist, Elodie Dubuisson, and a visual artist and gardener, Marlène Bourderon, will be on hand.
Don't leave without your Vivaces 2024! passport, and get your visas at every discovery stop. A "Retour de voyages" artistic improvisation workshop will stimulate creativity and gather travelers' impressions. Finally, on arrival, a souvenir will be offered for passports that have been properly stamped, with the support of the naturalist magazine La Salamandre.
From 2.30pm, follow the revelations on the beauty secrets of plants: in his white coat, with treasures in his pockets, passionate researcher Alexis Peaucelle will meet festival-goers to reveal the hidden secrets of plant beauty. A clever conjurer who will amaze us... with true stories!
Starting at 3pm, contemporary composer Nicolas Frize will present excerpts from his musical performance "Virtuoses de nature", the result of an unprecedented encounter between two disciplines: the living world of plants and the living world of music, with the support of scientific partners including Alexis Peaucelle.
At 3.30pm, a stroll with your nose in the wind... A cross-fertilization of noses between a neuroscience research director and a specialist in scents and fragrances in the Jardins passagers de La Villette. The beauty of plants is also olfactory! Why do the scents of plants, flowers and leaves move us, and how do plant odors reach us?
At 6pm, a dialogue between art and science, "Dans les tableaux de Marlène Bourderon" (In Marlène Bourderon's paintings)
Meet the festival's scientists, who will discuss what Marlène's paintings tell us about plant life and its deeper structure.
At 7:45 a.m., Bruno Mériguet, naturalist and entomologist at OPIE, will lead us through the history of the earth and the trail of plants, from their origins to the conquest of emerging lands. This will be followed, at 11 a.m., by a philosophical stroll Why do humans find beauty in nature? with Alexandre Lacroix, director of philosophy magazine.
Detailed program at www.pepinsproduction.fr/festival-vivaces-2024/
The Vivaces! Festival focuses on the way artists use scientific knowledge of plants to communicate the workings of the living world.
In 2024, Vivaces ! invites Marlène Bourderon, art-science artist and gardener, to explore the meaning of the beauty of plants.
> Marlène Bourderon will exhibit two prints of her large-scale paintings on Wenzhou paper, "Les ondes des fleurs" and "Dans l'obscurité des plantes", taken from her "Métamorphoses, Histoires naturelles du 21è siècle", a series of scientific stories, and will lead the "Portraits of plant cells" stage of the scientific discovery trail.
> Dialogue art et science at 6pm: "Dans les tableaux de Marlène Bourderon"
Meet the festival's scientists, who will discuss what Marlène's paintings tell us about plant life and its underlying structure.
AROUND THE ARTIST...
> The narrative of the work: Marlène Bourderon's large-scale works tell the story of the world of which we, as living beings, are a part. They present the narratives elaborated since the 20th century by teams of researchers in the life and earth sciences, blending visions, scales, everyday perception and the unveiling of the invisible by science. Starting with a reflection on how natural forms are formed, they show the magnificence of the world in its unity and infinite diversity. The accompanying texts indicate the point of view from which each work was created.
> The artist's work: between scientific exploration and plastic invention, the search for accuracy.
The approach is both poetic and conceptual. The artist draws on her understanding of the phenomena addressed, acquired through a wealth of scientific documentation, while using the formal resources of painting, drawing and composition to convey concepts that are sometimes highly abstract. The precision of this dual research underpins the originality of Marlène's work, and creates the impression of accuracy that characterizes it.
In 2024, the Vivaces! Festival, which delves into the intimate world of plants and their beauty, welcomes short extracts from Nicolas Frize's performance "Virtuoses de Nature" in the Parc du Sausset on June 22, 2024.
Excerpts from "Virtuoses de Nature": sequences for 4 flutes, 4 clarinets, 1 soprano, 10 sound actors.
A work about the nature of nature, its nuances, its disorders and its passions, its flashes and its slowness, its chances and its vital needs, its random processes of reproduction, its rhythms, its discoveries and its chaos...
(...) A work that symbolically "listens" to the plant (in the sense of an intimate understanding of its multiple vital functions) and, more factually, takes up the writing of the life of plants, trees... to translate it into musical and graphic notations!
Nicolas Frize embarked on two years of immersion in the heart of the Parc du Sausset, for an unprecedented encounter of two disciplinary fields: the living world of plants and the living world of music, with the support of scientific partners.
2024 was a milestone in this research residency, leading up to the great original scientific and poetic work that will be performed in the Parc du Sausset forest on Saturday May 24, 2025.
Dates and Opening Time
On October 12, 2024
Location
Parc de la Villette
211 Avenue Jean Jaurès
75019 Paris 19
