A Garden for Eternity
Gilles Clément – an innovative botanist and landscape architect, as well as a sensitive watercolorist – has spent a lifetime celebrating and engaging in a dialogue with nature.
It all began in childhood with a sense of wonder at discovering plants and insects, followed by his training at the École nationale supérieure d’horticulture in Versailles amid the upheaval of May 1968. It was there that a new vision of our relationship with nature began to take shape – one that is free, creative, and in constant movement.
Early on, he realized the vital importance of how we perceive nature: understanding before acting, observing before transforming. Every space possesses its own spirit, history, and inner logic. From this attentive listening, the art of gardening is born, grounded in recognizing the genius loci (the spirit of the place). This gave rise to his landmark concepts – the “Garden in Motion,” the “Third Landscape,” and the “Planetary Garden” – which bridge nature and writing, observation and imagination.
This book invites us to follow this journey – from garden to planet, from action to thought – to rethink the way we inhabit the Earth.
The book is published in France by Éditions Arthaud