As part of the “Rendez-vous aux Jardins”, Saturday, June 2, was inaugurated the “Caribbean Green Wall” at the Saint-John Perse Museum in Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe). This artistic and ecological work was made, among others, with ink cartridges. Several partners joined forces to make this project a reality, namely designer Myriam Maxo, Alexandre Buffon High School, XL Airways and HMC Riso.
44 empty ink cartridges of 28 cm were necessary to realize this green wall called “Caribbean Green Wall”. This artistic and ecological work was developped by Guadeloupean designer Myriam Maxo who is also a trainer. “I decided to make a green wall with these cartridges and, this project of ecological standing being in partnership with the airline company XL Airways, the sky inspired me, I put some animals like the rooster, the bird that is free as air as well as symbols”, she explained. To dress these containers, the artist used wax her favourite fabric. “I kept my collage technique, after the students used all their technicality for cutting, they bought raw materials (ropes, hooks, wood) that they reshaped to give substance to the idea that I had proposed. They make everything by hand in three days and they did it very well”, added Myriam Maxo.
An international cooperation mission
The Alexandre Buffon High School in Baie-Mahault immediately acepted this project mixing agriculture with ecology and allowing to enhance the profession of landscape-developer. The teaching team hopes to repeat this type of operation. “This is part of the DNA of agricultural education, of experimentation on the territory. We do not only teach in public education, we also participate in the international cooperation mission (…) So we hope to go beyond Guadeloupe to show, to prove Guadeloupean skills through these students”, said Nadine Godard, the head teacher of this class of 1st Bac Pro Landscape Development. As for these twenty students, they were very surprised to have been chosen to make this artistic work: “we were very happy to participate in this project, we learn many things about art, technique to master(…)”.
A star in the Michelin Guide
The mayor of the city of Pointe-à-Pitre was also at this inauguration because the Saint-John Perse Museum is a municipal structure. Jacques Bangou explained that Myriam Maxo had already worked with the city by realizing, some time ago, an temporary work on the entrance wall of the Dubouchage nursery school, an operation that took place in the street and in which residents of the district had spontaneously participated… “Here, the approach is different but, at the same time, it participates in this creativity, this exchange and this mutual enrichment because the students bring their touch. I recognize Mrs. Maxo’s artistic inspiration (…) We are in a garden which just (a week) has a star from the Michelin Guide (…) A work like this one participates in the life of the city which moves, a city is never the same every day and this is the artistic greening of the city”, said the mayor.
A project to create an emulation
For his part, Henri Congré, the general manager of HMC Riso established in Guadeloupe in 1989, said he was “amazed” by the quality of this project carried out in collaboration with Myriam Maxo. “The ink in our cartridges is made with soybean oil. We always looked for solutions to recycle our cartridges. We had a first project with the
Rivière-des-Pères High School in Basse-Terre which did not succeed. This single achievement in floral art is not enough. It will also be necessary to see the impact of this project. This must create an emulation”, he said.
To end this presentation, Wilhem Germany from the XL Airways airline gave two trophies : one to the principal of Alexandre Buffon High School, the other to the head teacher and her students. “We sincerely hope that we will collaborate again, we hope to allow you to go elsewhere to learn things and come back to enrich the territory with your new skills and new knowledge”, he said.
