Dans le cadre de la biennale d’architecture et du patrimoine de Bordeaux. Agora 2017
Déléguée générale : Michèle Larue-Charlus
Commissaire : Bas Smets assisté de Federica De Leidi
Réalisation des films de l’installation : Christian Barani - Bas Smets

Une exposition : Les paysages augmentés.
A la recherche de la résilience du territoire.
BAS SMETS : "Depuis que les villes se transforment en métropoles, l’urbanisation est devenue planétaire.
Le paysage ne se trouve plus en dehors de cette urbanisation, mais devient un élément essentiel du projet métropolitain. L’exposition "Paysages Augmentés" explore la notion du projet de paysage.
Avec le réalisateur Christian Barani nous avons exploré les différentes rôles du projet de paysage dans cinq métropoles contemporaines : la nécessité de contenir les montagnes friables à Hong Kong, l’ambition de transformer l’ile de Singapour en un jardin, la résistance du réseau de lacs et de rochers face au développement à Hyderabad, l’opportunité d’amplifier la nature à Bordeaux, et le projet de paysage comme nouvelle image pour Bruxelles. Ces films montrent la capacité de l’homme à transformer son territoire à partir d’une projection précise du paysage.
Les films sont diffusés sur un double dispositif pentagonal qui immerge les visiteurs dans les paysages. Le dispositif n’offre pas de point de vue privilégiée, il ne permet pas de tout voir. Les paysages que verra le visiteur seront conditionnés par son regard subjectif. Chaque écran est d’une dimension de 4,5 m de base.
Le visiteur peut entrer par où il veut et quand il veut. Les films sont diffusés les uns après les autres".

HONG KONG  :
Une ingénierie du territoire
An engineering of the territory

VOIR LE MONTAGE 5 ÉCRANS DE L’INSTALLATION

The hills of Hong Kong island are made out of brittle rock. The weathering granite is crumbly and easily displaced. Over the past century, major landslides have occurred regularly, causing the loss of many lives. After a series of catastrophic landslides in the 1970s, the Hong Kong Government set up a special geotechnical organisation to deal with slope safety problems. Over the last four decades more than 60.000 slopes with a potential risk have been registered into an online database.
The landscape has become an interactive object, outside of its physical reality. It has become an object of communication and improvement. Over the last four decades, the safety of more than 4.000 slopes has been improved, at a yearly cost of 250 million €.

This results in an augmented landscape where the boundary between natural and artificial has been erased. The slopes are covered by a protective layer, a technological shell with an integrated surveillance systems. At the same time a sophisticated system of drainage channels catches the rainwater runoff from the hills and directs it to fifteen valley reservoirs, providing drinking water for the island.

Extrait.

SINGAPOUR :
Une identité nationale et une ambition globale
A national identity and global ambition

VOIR LE MONTAGE 5 ÉCRANS DE L’INSTALLATION

After independence in 1965, the Government began a deliberate process of crafting a Singaporean identity and culture. Central in this new identity was the greening campaign. Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with a uniform temperature, a constant high humidity and abundant rainfall. Starting from the garden city concepts, developed by Ebenezer Howard at the end of the 19th century, the Government introduced the vision of making Singapore a "City in a Garden".
The country started incorporating far-reaching concepts in its town planning to ensure that building codes make adequate provision for greenery. Over the last 20 years there has been a net increase of about 25% of the vegetated area

HYDERABAD :
Un réseau de lacs et de rochers
A network of lakes and rocks

VOIR LE MONTAGE 5 ÉCRANS DE L’INSTALLATION

The city of Hyderabad lies on the banks of the river Musi, in the northern part of the Deccan Plateau. It lies on a predominantly sloping terrain of grey and pink granite, dotted with small hills made up of rock formations. These granite rocks are part of a natural drainage system together with the river Musi and its myriad of lakes and ponds. Rock formations and water bodies form an ecological network that once sustained a rich variety of fauna and flora.
The city has grown tremendously in the last decade with its population exceeding 10 million inhabitants, while the surface of its tree cover has diminished to less than 2%. The pressure of development threatens the preservations of the sites of the rock formations. Often the rocks are demolished and pulverised to be used as the foundations of the new buildings erected on their site.

Extrait.

BRUXELLES  :
Une nouvelle image pour la ville
A new image for a city

VOIR LE MONTAGE 5 ECRANS DE L’INSTALLATION

Brussels has lost its identity when its main river Zenne was canalised underneath the city centre in the 19th century. A navigable canal was built parallel to this underground river, further accelerating the urbanisation of the natural valley of the Zenne.

Ever since the city covered its connection with its origin, Brussels has been at loss with its image. Over the last decades it has been trying to make the river visible again, without success. However, the Zenne has a number of tributaries. Unlike its main river, these eight secondary waterways are still visible as small channels, draining the rainwater of a generally flat topography. Their humidity has been a natural resistance against development, while offering a fertile ground for vegetation.

Most of the parks and green spaces of Brussels are directly connected to these tributaries. Together with its parks, forests, wetlands and agricultural fields, each of these secondary streams could be developed into a linear landscape structure. Animals, plants and humans would benefit from these continuous parks, while they would create opportunities for development along the new park edge.

BORDEAUX :
Une amplificaton de la nature
An amplification of nature

VOIR LE MONTAGE 5 ÉCRANS DE L’INSTALLATION

The city of Bordeaux has originated at the confluence of the river Garonne and its main tributaries. These tributaries run parallel from west to east, draining the Landes plateau towards the Garonne valley at a regular distance. The Romans had built a port in the meanders of the Dévèze and the Peugue, then still connected to the Atlantic Ocean.

These secondary rivers still play an important role north and south of the city centre, notably in the wine territories. In the city centre they have mainly been covered up in the 19th century. With the construction of the ring-road around the city centre most of the water from these tributaries is effectively diverted away from the centre, to prevent flooding. However, the constructions are still in place and could be activated to have more or less water flowing towards the Garonne.

The underlying structure can be activated to augment the ecological services of nature within the city.