Minéral / Végétale (Mineral / Vegetable)

Architecture

Landscape

When an urban architect from the North and a Mediterranean landscape architect, rooted in his Provençal land, compare their visions of the garden, what lessons can we learn from their comments? For Jean Mus as for Jean-Michel Wilmotte, it is an impulse towards Beauty that has determined their work and their lives. But each seems to approach this objective from a diametrically opposed point of view: intellect and rationality for one, sensuality and emotion for the other.

To the Cartesian or “Apollonian” spirit of Wilmotte, solar champion of form, logic and the plastic arts, should we oppose the instinctive, “Dionysian” spirit of Mus, scourge of rationalism and defender of sincerity, exuberance, laughter and mystery? The line for the one, the curve for the other; the preponderance of the mineral for the architect, and that of the plant for the landscape designer?

Through a fruitful dialogue between these two great creators, collected by Dane McDowell, the reader will understand how these two antinomic points of view are the basis of their respective creative processes, how they are expressed in their work, how they oppose each other, how they confront each other and, in the end, how they often come together.