JARDIN DE LA TERRE

Designed by WAA Montreal / Nadia Myre / Atomic 3 as part of a competition, the interior courtyard of the Chancellery of Canada in Paris is an oasis of peace where employees relax and socialize and where events and meetings are held during official ceremonies. The design, materials and plants come together to tell, on a geographically French and politically Canadian territory, the history of a country, of nations, of colonialism, and of reconciling exchanges.

Tubular ceramic beads sit on the central artwork, and are reconstructed remnants of several Native American customs: pipe and tobacco, hospitality, and milestones in diplomatic relations. They served as a model for the tens of thousands of tubular pearls that form the backlit envelope and in continuous metamorphosis. This sheath covers a metal sculpture representing the birch, a fundamental tree in the history of the natives and the forests of North America.