AVENTURES VÉGÉTALES — De l'insouciance à la liberté encadrée

16.5 x 23 cm / 224 pages / May 25, 2020 

isbn: 978-2-35137-299-9

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The exhibition “Aventures végétales, de l'insouciance à la liberté encadrée”, presented in the salons of the Château de La Roche-Guyon from March 7 to July 7, 2020, is the cornerstone of a thematic Season entitled “Voyage et Commerce des plantes”. The exhibition is curated by Yves-Marie Allain, former director of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle's plant cultivation department.

It presents the history of plants from a dual perspective: that of their free adventure in time and space, and the much more recent one of their total or partial dependence on man.

The exhibition and accompanying catalog cover the following subjects: the plant adventure on a geological time scale, the domestication of plants useful to man, the new way of looking at the plant world from the Renaissance onwards, the techniques used to transport living plants, the creation of plant collections, the cultural specialization of colonial empires, and finally the contemporary era and its new vision of the living world.

In addition, given the presence at the Château de La Roche-Guyon of two 18th-century Chinese wallpapers depicting Chinese flora, a more specific look is taken at the knowledge and perception of Chinese flora by 18th- and 19th-century Europeans.