"In us the man of all time. In all of us men. In us the animal, the vegetable, the mineral. Man is not only man. It is universe 1". This 7th International Biennale of Contemporary Art of Melle 2015 is based on Aimé Césaire's thought, with its dual poetic and political commitment, far from any anthropocentrism, this new edition implements the correlation, cooperation, interdependence and diversity of life on which all humanity depends. It is built on "the indispensable connivance, since time immemorial, between the human and the non-human 2" as anthropologist Philippe Descola observes.
Earth gardeners Heavenly gardeners combine ecology and the philosophy of existence with active creators, all inhabited by an equal genius of life: from Gilles Clément to Bill Viola, from Marie-Monique Robin to Olivier Darné, from Julien Blaine to Sylvain Soussan, from Nicolas Kozakis to Raoul Vaneigem, from Kôichi Kurita to the fabulous peasant painters Warli, Jivya Soma Mashe, Reena Umbersada, Shantaram Tumbada, Anil Vangad, etc.  Faced with multiple changes and disturbances of all kinds, these artists cultivate the living in their works, awaken urgent degrees of consciousness, sow seeds of resistance, enchantment and replace the human being at the heart of the vital movement, feet on the ground, on the balcony of the universe. Particularly honey-bearing, this biennial brings together twenty-five Homo sapiens who transgress the boundaries of art, science, culture and agriculture. Poets of physics, astrophysics, metaphysics... they offer more light, more space, more meaning, more pleasure. They invite you to enjoy life, to invent new happy gardening rules... of a new societal project for a viable global garden.
"The planetary garden," says Gilles Clément, "is the Earth seen as a garden, the place where the best 3 accumulate." With, today, seven billion gardeners on the planet.
Dominique Truco curator

Kwafir
Reunion Island Creole hairstyle
slaves sometimes hid seeds from their country of origin in their hair before being
deportation. The seed was a symbol of the mother country, a source of wealth for the future. Peanut seeds have been sown into two ceramic busts, whose braided plant-fibre headdresses are based on images of hairstyles photographed by J.D. Okhai Ojeikere.

Botanical portraits
We all have a memory linked to a plant: childhood, family, origins, walk, tasting....
In the first workshop, participants write down their memories of a plant and then say them out loud so that they can be recorded. All the recordings start with my name, then the first name and geographical origin of each participant.
Research is then carried out into the origin of the plant species, and a new recording is made: my name is nettle... with a botanical and geographical description in the first person.
A second workshop was based on the geography of these chosen plants/ A specimen of each plant was placed in a felt pot and covered with a map.
The project was carried out with a primary school class, a secondary school class and an environmental BTS class from Melle.

La Grande Tisane
was set up in front of the church of Saint Savinien, following a call in the local press for people to come along with cuttings of plants used to make herbal teas. The nomadic bags were made with the help of the horticultural college in Niort and Pierre Jozelon, head of the arboretum. At the end of the biennial event: a conference on the uses and benefits of aromatic plants, with Armelle Rambaud, herbalist, followed by a botanical walk with Armelle Rambaud and Pierre Jozelon, and a tasting of mint, hyssop, lavender and thyme syrups and cakes prepared by Fanny Petit, and a large herbal tea prepared by Eric Caillon, from the nomadic aromatic garden. With the support of the Yvonne Mention-Verdier school and the Melle en art association.

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