My research consists of setting up the bases of dialectic between the evolutions of contemporary art, (cf. Land art, Earth art, Arte will povera, Integral naturalism, etc), and that of the urban forests. Nevertheless, if the implementation of the Agenda XXI, (cf. Summit of the Earth of Rio de Janeiro, 1992), encouraged the authorities to create ecological reserves in the center of the cities, (cf. “Small Amazonia”, Nantes city, France), it is important to point out that these “urban nature programs’” are very often accompanied by a command made from the public authorities to an artist who received a mission to improve these programs. Because, these reserves of nature, even if they are returned in a wild state, are really part of the public domain, that makes it necessary to show the interest of these reserves in order to inspire some new uses to the attention of the urban population. What is new is that this mission is more and more often entrusted to an artist who acts as an intermediary between the authorities and the people. In fact, the treatment of nature in the city is not a new subject. Parks, gardens and forests of Paris and Rio de Janeiro (for its incredible urban forest of Tijuca), had been already created accordingly during the XIX century. However, to the XX and XXI centuries, it appears that art and ecology could revolutionize “Art to build the cities” (Sitte, 1889). These changes are still in progress therefore I decided to show theses evolutions between art and few urban projects I’ve especially chosen to carry out the forest in the city. That is why I’m so interested about the work of Dominique Mansion. Because his “trognes” are ready made which turn away an object resulting from the agricultural world for aesthetic proposes. In this context, the Garden of Dominique Mansion, like any work of art, is not confined to the workshop where it is conceived, - even if this is the agricultural world where these “trognes” were product, because they alsointerest the urban world by creating a new opening in the aesthetic precepts’ domain.
* “Trogne” is a French common name for “pollard tree” which means “ugly face”