In 2019, the Roubaix–Tourcoing Metropolitan Centre for Children and Families and the collective “Le Jardin dans les étoiles” (The garden in the stars) commissioned an artist to promote the sharing of knowledge and innovative agricultural techniques in an urban setting.
The Centre for Children and Families supports vulnerable adolescents and offers them the chance to take part in gardening activities in partnership with La Condition Publique, which manages a rooftop garden. This “zero carbon” initiative invites young people to reflect on climate change and explore eco-friendly habits in their everyday lives.
This project first inspired “Cataplasme” by Philémon Vanorlé, a mobile horticultural artwork devoted to the growing of marigolds (Calendula officinalis). This greenhouse-on-wheels, adorned with a piece of handcrafted luxury plumbing, is equipped with a pump to draw fresh water to keep the flowers perfectly watered.
Following an initial phase of experimentation, “Cataplasme” has been developed into a filmic work by Philémon Vanorlé and Justine Pluvinage. The film follows two teenage girls from Roubaix who run away from the centre, taking with them their marigold-worries (“soucis” in French meaning both marigolds and worries…)
They travel across the Nord region towards the coast, guided by chance encounters and the healing properties of these medicinal plants. Along the way, they tend to their marigold-worries, sowing them as they go.
“Situated halfway between fiction and documentary, this film, in the tradition of the road movie, is an initiatory voyage into the very heart of adolescence.” — Philémon Vanorlé and Justine Pluvinage
