Designer Patrick Nadeau continues his Rainforest series by unveiling a new immersive installation in the small greenhouse at Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire.
After Milan Cologne, Prague… it’s at the Chaumont-sur-Loire International Garden Festival that Patrick Nadeau created Rainforest 4. Responding to the invitation of director Chantal Colleu-Dumond, he took over the greenhouses of the estate, bathed in tropical vegetation. Here the Aristolochia gigantea ) dress the beams of the glass roof, to create a shaded volume. This lush vegetation combines large leaves of false philodendron (Monster deliciosa) , lyre fig trees (Ficus lyrata ), a Dombeya Walichii , Musa Basjoo bananas, Asparagus sprenger and some plumosus: this is where the designer has chosen to compose his new installation. “Conceived as a collage of more or less imaginary landscapes , it appears like a rain crossing a tropical forest to fall on large turquoise blue puddles . ”
Rainforest, a tribute to the southern United States
This rain is made up of Tillandsias usneoides, more commonly known as “Spanish moss”, typical of lakes and peat swamps in the southern United States: “They feed exclusively on the humidity of the air and light. In the installation the tillandsias, which are arranged on large wire crinolines, hang casually above colored spots made up of ceramic cups. These are inspired by cenotes, kinds of very intense blue water holes that can be seen in the Yucatan jungle. Molten blue glass in the cups creates an aquatic effect. “
