As part of Voyage à Nantes. Here, in front of the Maison de l’architecture, we have asphalt. It is the most widely used ground covering in France for smooth, comfortable circulation, without dust and without mud. The fact is that this bituminous horizon has shaped all spatial planning in favor of the “clean” and at the expense of the “living.” The earth disappears beneath its covering.The earth is no more.The asphalt has covered it, just as the city has, to the point of forgetting it.“Beneath the asphalt, the earth!” is an act of (re)discovery. A strip measuring 25 x 2 m is peeled back to (re)discover the earth. In the same gesture, the asphalt is reused on site to give shape to a manifesto sculpture, as if the material had been scraped up and gathered into a pile at the end. In this (re)discovered earth, a procession of pioneer plants from urban environments, such as pellitory-of-the-wall, otherwise known as wall-piercer, (re)take their place to form a living jungle in a spontaneous cry. Laurence Robert and Sébastien Argant are State landscape advisers and landscape designers. They are co-managers of la Terre Terme, a studio of landscape designers certified by the state. Installation visible from June 26 to September 6, 2026: 7 days a week — 24 hours a day. As part of Voyage à Nantes. Here, in front of the Maison de l’architecture, we have asphalt. It is the most widely used ground covering in France for smooth, comfortable circulation, without dust and without mud. The fact is that this bituminous horizon has shaped all spatial planning in favor of the “clean” and at the expense of the “living.” The earth disappears beneath its covering. The earth is no more. The asphalt has covered it, just as the city has, to the point of forgetting it. “Beneath the asphalt, the earth!” is an act of (re)discovery. A strip measuring 25 x 2 m is peeled back to (re)discover the earth. In the same gesture, the asphalt is reused on site to give shape to a manifesto sculpture, as if the material had been scraped up and gathered into a pile at the end. In this (re)discovered earth, a procession of pioneer plants from urban environments, such as pellitory-of-the-wall, otherwise known as wall-piercer, (re)take their place to form a living jungle in a spontaneous cry. Laurence Robert and Sébastien Argant are State landscape advisers and landscape designers. They are co-managers of la Terre Terme , a studio of landscape designers certified by the state. Installation visible from June 26 to September 6, 2026: 7 days a week — 24 hours a day.
Source: Nantes Métropole