Gilles Clément

Landscape designer and botanist, Gilles Clément (born in 1943) thinks of the planet as a garden. He has developed several concepts dealing with landscape, among them is the idea of a garden in movement, which stems from the observation that a natural landscape is never frozen and that plant and animal species constantly circulate within it. Inaugurated in 1999, the André-Citroën Park in Paris is the first application of this approach in a public space. In the same year, the exhibition at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris, entitled Le jardin planétaire (the global garden), presented his project of a humanist ecology. A third line of research, is the concept of « Tiers-Paysage » focusing on abandoned or non-cropped landscape to develop biological diversity. 

Gilles Clément has published numerous works and articles, including Éloge des vagabondes (2002), Où en est l’herbe ?, réflexions sur le jardin planétaire (2006) and L’Alternative ambiante (2014). He has also designed the garden of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris in collaboration with Jean Nouvel. Clément regularly collaborates on exhibitions such as Airs de Paris at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, in 2007, and Le Tiers-Paysage de l’île Lanzarote, at the Manrique Center in 2008.

He has received the Grand Prix national du paysage in 1998 and taught at the École nationale supérieure du paysage in Versailles, France.