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PARK, ARTISTIC GARDEN WITH CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURES

ALCINOOS GARDEN


After an active life as a business manager in the South East of France, Philippe Michelot settled as a farmer in 1999 in Saint Rémy de Provence.

Great-grandson of Doubs farmers and Burgundy winegrowers, he wanted to rediscover the scents, colors and rhythms of his childhood holidays on the family farm.

So he bought this agricultural estate and brought life back to the Mas des Figues with the planting of 1000 olive trees, vines, a vegetable garden, an orchard, pastures...

And right in the heart of the bed and breakfast property, he has created a botanical garden with 4,000 rosebushes.

 

For you, what is the link between culture and agriculture?

At the same time as I was giving new life to the agricultural domain, I took part in sculpture and pottery workshops. You have to take the time to tame the material, to feel it.

Over time, the earth gives vegetables, fruits.Over time, pasture grass becomes milk, meat.

Over time, a block of clay, a block of stone, reeds become artistic works. The peasant works the earth to nourish his body, the artist works the earth to nourish his mind.

And I became an artist from raw material, neglected, forgotten material. I pick up here and there. It speaks to me. In the manner of Arte Povera.

What is the Alcinoos garden?

In my garden I tell the story of a life with my artistic creations placed here and there. Creating this garden was a need for me, an initiatory journey in search of the ""I"".

This garden, I baptized it with the name of Alcinoos in reference to Ulysses and his Odyssey across the Mediterranean. We cross the very beautiful rose gardens, the water garden, the simple garden, the cloister with olive trees, the artists' greenhouse...

And we discover here a sculpture of a tree, there a totem with 4 faces, further from the giant spheres which fly away in the wind. It's like a place of dreams and meditation. We settle down there and, comfortably seated, we admire the garden and we let ourselves go.

As the Spanish poet Antonio Machado said: "no hay camino es camino que se hace el camino" "there is no path, it is by walking that one builds one's path" "it is going towards the sea that the rivers are faithful to their source" 'Heraclitus