Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal 2013 - part 7
In 2013, the Montreal International Mosaïcultures exhibition was at the Montreal Botanical Garden. The theme was Earth of Hope. With 48 spectacular works from 18 countries, the Botanical Garden was transformed into a wonderland from June 22 to September 29. The exhibition has been extended to October 6 for people to see the works awarded by the jury and by the public.
On June 9, 2013, I was fortunate enough to have a day pass; I was able to visit and photograph the mosaicultures as they were being assembled. Here are my best photos taken before, during, and after this sensational exhibition. The works are numbered from 1 to 48, as in the order of the plan in 2013.
I made eight projects of six works to show you all the horticultural and environmental creations of this exhibition. A ninth project will soon follow with the 25 award-winning works.
Here is a short video that quickly shows the assembly of some works.
In this project, you will see mosaics from : Canada, Yemen & Mexico.
It took more than six years for the team of Mosaicultures Internationales de Montréal (MIM) to develop and realize The Bird Tree. With a height of 16 meters, the diameter of the top is 18 meters. A challenge for its construction and the choice of plants.
This work weighs one hundred tons and the heaviest bird weighs over three tons, it is the Egyptian Vulture. The metal structure of the birds is made of aluminum to reduce the weight.
The 14 branches of the tree metamorphose into 50 species of birds. At the foot of the tree, the roots change into a salamander, a turtle, a frog, an iguana, a kakapo (or parrot-hibou, the only flightless parrot) and a Cuban crocodile. All of them are among the most endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list.
Planted in the middle of a pond, to symbolize the mangroves of Sundarban, coastal ecosystems of great biological richness seriously threatened, The Bird Tree represents the wilderness that Man must preserve at all costs.
In the branches, 50 birds were represented in plant sculptures:
1. Hyacinth Macaw, 2. Red-necked Goose, 3. Egyptian Vulture, 4. Puerto Rican Amazon, 5. Ivory-billed Woodpecker, 6. Pink-necked Nuthatch, 7. Gray-breasted Parakeet, 8. Javanese Eagle, 9. Prigogine's Phoebe, 10. Gurney's Prickly Pear, 11. Whistling Penelope, 12. Orange-bellied Parakeet, 13. White Crab, Ouvéa's Parakeet, 14. Mitred Grebe, 15. Ridgway's Hawk, 16. Walden's Hornbill, 17. Galapagos Albatross, 18. Buffon's Macaw, 19. Oriental Stork, 20. Fuertes' Caique, 21. Gambier Kingfisher, 21. Lafresnaye's Macaw, 22. Narcondam's Hornbill, 23. White-headed Duck, 24. California Condor, 25. Negros's Gallicolombus, 26. Sao Tome's Shrike, 27. Flores's Eagle, 28. Sun Parakeet, 29. Forbes's Kite, 30. Latham's Parakeet, 31. Harlequin Lory, 32. Chinese Merganser, 33. Rothschild's Starling, 34. Japanese Crane, 35. Golden Parakeet, 36. Irene's Screech-Owl, 37. Canary Macaw, 38. Bald Ibis, 39. Yellow-headed Amazon, 40. Horned Owl, 41. Yellow-crested Cockatoo, 42. Gunnison's Grouse, 43. Blue-headed Dove, 44. Argala Marabou, 45. Black-fronted Penelope, 46. Negros's Gallicolumba, 47. Geoffroy's Dove, 48. Forest Owl, 49. Piping Plover, and the 50. Indian Vulture.
In the area of the roots, we could see these six species:
the Kakapo, O'Brien's woodpecker, Lehmann's Dendrobate, Cuban crocodile, a Fiji Iguana and an Asian box turtle.
A female mallard lying in the flowers contemplates The Bird Tree.
The horticulturists responsible for the maintenance of The Bird Tree have undergone special training in climbing techniques.
38. Yémen – Disappearing in the Nature
Located in the west of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, known mainly for its large arid plains, he is home to more than 360 species of birds and about 1800 plant species.
Its coastline abounds with crabs, shrimps, lobsters, sea cucumbers and jellyfish. Victims of hunting, wild mammals (leopard, gazelles, antelopes) have disappeared. Domestic animals remain: dromedaries, camels, goats, oxen, donkeys, dogs and cats. Among the 40 species of snakes, 14 are poisonous. The other reptiles (varan, gecko) are much more peaceful.
Of Yemen's once lush forests, only a few groups of trees remain along the rivers. Yemen was a pioneer in the cultivation of coffee and was the only exporter of coffee until around 1750, but the most prized plant of the Yemeni people is the qat, whose leaves have a euphoric and stimulating effect.
Here, a short video showing Yemen from the air.
Yemen – Al Hawf Natural Reserve, Yemen's Wild Paradise ...
Typical of this region of the world, the veiled chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus), usually quite peaceful, does not take kindly to another chameleon standing in front of it.
While it’s commonly believed that chameleons change their skin tone to match their environment, this power serves a more practical and immediate purpose: to regulate body temperature. Since chameleons are incapable of generating body heat, they instead regulate the level of heat they absorb from the sun by changing their coloring. But this talent is also used as a way of communicating with one another.
Coloring can be used to indicate aggression between two territorial males, or it can be a way of demonstrating that a chameleon is amenable to breeding. All of this is regulated through an internal sack that changes the body color through the use of just four different pigments — brown, blue, red, and yellow.
There are more than 160 different chameleon species, and you can learn all about them here. 1*
The eyes of the chameleon can rotate independently almost 180 degrees and look in two directions at once. When they spot a prey (they feed on insects), their two eyes focus on it. They catch it with their very agile, very sticky and very long tongue, which can reach one and a half times their total body length!
"Border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia: The veiled chameleon occupies high, dry plateaus and is found near the border of Yemen and Saudi Arabia along the foot of the escarpment and local wadis (inland river valley), to an elevation of almost 3,000 feet.
As the human population increases, chameleons are losing their natural habitat.
Live and dead chameleons are sold for rituals and souvenirs. They are therefore of economic importance."2*
Reading this article saddened me, because the worst threat to this animal comes from man and his stupid belief that throwing a live lizard into the fire will bring him luck. This is terrible, because because of their slowness and inability to move quickly, chameleons are easy prey and little martyrs in the animal world.
Reading this article saddened me, because the worst threat to this animal comes from man and his stupid belief that throwing a live lizard into the fire will bring him luck. This is terrible, because because of their slowness and inability to move quickly, chameleons are easy prey and little martyrs in the animal world.
39. Canada – Montreal Botanical Garden - The Earth, Our Home
The Montreal Botanical Garden had the great idea to have visitors participate in the creation of a collective work. On Monday, June 24, 2013, I inserted a small green plant into this green wall, it's this little pale green plant you see below. A week later, I took this picture of "my plant." Look at the finished mural, near the letter H in Earth, there is a small dark green planet. My plant was the first plant in the ring above this planet.
It's so true! The Earth is our home.
40. Canada – Montreal – Albert Mondor
The Garden of Glass and Metal
The Garden of Glass and Metal was designed and built by horticulturist Albert Mondor and his team. This landscaping is almost entirely made of recycled glass and reclaimed steel.
A long path made of finely crushed glass bottles crosses the path. The central work is a huge rusted metal structure from which a waterfall flows into a basin at its base. The structure weighs nearly 5 tons and was made from old steel panels from a dismantled recycling plant.
In the basin, in an empty wine bottle closed with a cork, on a piece of green paper, we could read the words: I love you in French = Je t'aime.
The garden is also decorated with a wall of recycled glass bottles, various chromed or rusted steel structures that form the backbone of this landscape, as well as sculptures of metallic insects and birds created by the welding artist Jeffrey McDonald at the request of Mr. Mondor.
To symbolize the transformation of the metal over the years, plants and flowers in silver, gray, orange, brown or purple colors have been chosen to give the impression of being rusty while others have a silver hue similar to that of stainless steel.
Albert Mondor says: "I wanted this garden to be a place for meditation and reflection on the impermanence of things, events and living beings. I hope that people who visit the Glass and Metal Garden will realize that beauty can be found everywhere - often where you wouldn't expect it - even in empty bottles and old rusty pieces of metal!" (1)
On October 8, 2015, this garden was dedicated in Blainville to remain permanently. (2)
1. Horticulture extrême - Albert Mondor
From used car parts, old tools and utensils, Jeffrey McDonald has created these incredible sculptures. On the right, the giant ant is five meters long. (1)
41. Canada - Verdun - Bees: A Source of Life
If the Bee Disappeared Off the Face of the Earth,
Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live
You may have read or heard this sentence attributed to Albert Einstein.
I wanted to know if this sentence was from him, so I did some research.
If Einstein said that, this sentence would not have been noted.
But, this next sentence of Einstein would have been published in Canadian Bee Journal"
in 1941: "Remove the bee from the earth and at the same stroke you remove at least one hundred thousand plants that will not survive.*"
In the bibliography of this journal, we can read: "Comments From Quebec by Ernest A. Fortin." I did a search with Mr. Fortin's name and found this quote from him:
"If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years."
Perhaps Albert Einstein inspired this sentence.
The important thing is not to know who formulated these words, but to be aware that the number of bees is decreasing everywhere on the planet and that something must be done. For them and for us. It is for this reason that these sculptures were made.
Bee decline facts reveal the western honeybee is the most commonly managed pollinator globally. It provides approximately 1.6 million tons of honey yearly.
Other managed bee species are bumblebees, the eastern honey bee, stingless bees, and some solitary bees.
Still, most pollinators are wild and include more than just bees. Besides about 20,000 species of bees, other pollinators include some species of vertebrates, bats, birds, beetles, wasps, moths, butterflies, and flies.
We might think that the decline of bees is not so bad, because other insects and animals are pollinators, such as bats. Alas, bats are also in decline!
In the first link, you can find statistics on the situation of bees and in the second one, information on bats:
42. Mexico - Mexico City - Along the river
Xochimilco (pronounced Sotchimilco), a district of Mexico City located in the southern part of the city, is a region that has been called the Mexican Venice. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 due to its cultural value and extraordinary natural features. The government of Mexico City has implemented measures to protect the environment of this nature reserve so that visitors can enjoy a guided ecological tour nearby, which will inform them about conservation projects for the endemic flora and fauna of one of the most important wetlands in the metropolis.
With an area of 13 hectares, the ecological park of Xochimilco is the largest in Latin America. The park has a recreational area and a bird sanctuary, including the American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrohynchos), which stays in the area during the harsh Canadian winter. Visitors can board trajineras, curious and colorful boats made of wood. This navigation system was also the main means of transportation, especially for agri-food products from the pre-Hispanic period until the 20th century.
Xochimilco has a network of canals and floating gardens called chinampas, invented by the pre-Hispanic peoples of the region about 10,000 years ago to increase agricultural production. Nowadays, they constitute an important part of the agricultural production of the district.
The work presented in collaboration with the Council for the Promotion of Tourism of Mexico shows one of the trajineras on which tourists can board to discover the canals that crisscross Xochimilco.
For more information, please visit this link:
In the summer of 2022, for the first time, the Montreal International Mosaicultures exhibition will be in Quebec City, at Bois-de-Coulonge Park.
Mosaicultures - Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal
Mosaicultures - Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal
