Marine Lanier

Marine Lanier: Le Jardine d’Hannibal

Curated by Luce Lebart.

Le Jardin d’Hannibal Le Jardin d’Hannibal is set in the Lautaret Garden, the highest alpine botanical garden in Europe, located at 2,100 meters beneath the Meije glaciers. Home to more than 2,000 plant species, it functions as a conservatory of alpine flora from the world’s great mountain ranges. Since spring 2019, I have spent extended periods living in the Mirande laboratory chalet with ecologists, botanists and gardeners. As the snow melted, alpine plants from across the globe gradually reappeared among meadows and rocks.In the evenings, shared stories included the legend of Hannibal, said to have crossed the Lautaret Pass with a heterogeneous army during his Alpine campaign. These ancient visions merge with the images I make in the garden, forming a dreamlike and nocturnal herbarium where plants emerge from winter like the traces of an impossible journey. This garden laboratory echoes resistance, much like Hannibal opposing Rome, standing today against climate change. For over two centuries, scientists have studied biodiversity here, sustaining a global network of seed exchange that preserves living memory. Today, the garden is a center for research on global change. One experiment relocates alpine turf by helicopter to lower altitudes to study the effects of rising temperatures. Through large format photography and colored monochromes inspired by Karl Blossfeldt, Anna Atkins and early landscape photography, I explore fragments of life and imagine a primitive world in transformation.