Pascal Cribier: a gardener’s itineraries

Despite no early vocation in the field, Pascal Cribier (1953 – 2015) became one of the leading landscapers of his generation. Around ten years after his death, this conference will be devoted to presenting a selection of his most renowned projects, such as the Tuileries, with Louis Benech and François Roubaud, as well as more confidential accomplishments. Working at all levels, convinced that any garden has the potential to become the most beautiful place on Earth, Cribier also developed a passion for botany, which he transposed, not only in his garden laboratory in Varengeville-sur-Mer, but also in unique projects such as the experimental garden in Méry-sur-Oise. A compulsive photographer, he left a prolific pictorial testimony of his garden developments over time. In 2009, Xavier Barral devoted his monograph entitled Itinéraires d’un jardinier to Cribier in 2009, directed by Laurent Le Bon.

Marc Jeanson is a botanist and doctor in plant systematics at the New York Botanical Garden (United States) and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
After serving as director of the Montpellier Herbarium, he worked from 2013 to 2019 for the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, in charge of the national herbarium. From 2019 to 2023, he was also director for the Majorelle Garden in Marrakesh, recently returning to the Parisian museum. In 2017, he was associate commissioner of the ‘Jardins’ exhibition at the Grand Palais national galleries in Paris, then commissioner of the ‘Végétéale – L’école de la Beauté’ exhibition at the Paris School of Fine Arts in 2022 and, finally, of the ‘Cactus’ exhibition at the Yves-Saint-Laurent Museum in Marrakesh, which is currently on display at the New National Museum of Monaco. The author of several scientific and general publications, he also wrote Botaniste, published in 2019 by Grasset. Since 2018, he has taken on the chairmanship of the Association des Amis de Pascal Cribier.