A Living Laboratory
Presented by Espace Jörg Brockmann at Paris Photo, artist Marine Lanier’s Hannibal’s Garden is an oneiric exploration of the highest garden in Europe.
By Gaia Squarci. Photographs by Marine Lanier
Working alongside researchers and botanists, photographer Marine Lanier documented the Lautaret Alpine Garden, facing the glaciers of La Meije at an altitude of 2,100 meters. The garden is a unique site for the study of plants sourced from the highest peaks around the world: the Alps, the Rockies, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Andes.
Ranging from black-and-white portraits of the gardeners to ambiguous color studies of flora, textures and landscape, willfully deprived of points of reference, Lanier’s images intertwine science and myth.
Since the 19th century, the garden has welcomed generations of students and scientists devoted to preserving and understanding life in extreme environments. Today, it hosts an experiment known as the “flying alpine pasture”: eight tons of alpine soil have been relocated by helicopter to study how a three-degree temperature difference alters plant survival, an inquiry into the mountain landscape of the future.
As night fell on the site, the legend of Hannibal’s passage through the Alps often resurfaced among Marine Lanier’s fellow researchers. The story resonated with the photographer, who saw in this “laboratory-garden” a bastion of resistance, and a quiet echo of Hannibal’s defiance against Rome.
Hannibal’s Garden is on view at Espace Jörg Brockmann’s booth at Paris Photo, until November 16.
