The Jardins Albert-Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt is a magical enclosure
just off Paris where the banker Albert Kahn (1860-1940), who dedicated part of
his colossal fortune to foundations fostering world peace, created a series of
gardens in different styles conjuring his favorite landscapes.
It is, naturally, the Japanese garden that Hermès chose as the setting
of a lovely, poetic tribute to the Hermessence collection.
Jean-Claude Ellena, who is particularly sensitive to Japanese esthetics,
has long called this series his “haikus”: in Japan, he met with haiku masters
who composed poems inspired by the Hermessences, which in turn inspired
installations set in the Albert-Kahn garden.
Purple-painted stones marked an itinerary along which were erected a
series of ten little “shrines”: at each stop, a Hermès ribbon sprayed with one
of the Hermessences was tied to a stylized fan. The perfumes mingled with the
delicate vegetal scents of the garden in the moist, warm air of early summer…
Paprika Brasil
A towering tree
Sets its blossoms aquiver
Sweet cool of the night
Kaï Hasegawa
Osmanthe Yunnan
Apricot blossom
Making a hairpin in jade
And the evening star
Dhugal Lindsay
Poivre Samarcande
Blessed cool of evening!
We live on this sparkling planet:
Land of oases
Shugyô Takaha
Brin de Réglisse
One summer’s evening
A swift gust brings out the blow
Of the evening star
Hadoka Hayuzumi
Multicoloured shells
Washed up onto the beach
Long spring afternoon
Minoru Ozawa
Every time she meets
A man, she then gives to him
Her iris perfume!
Teiko Inahata
Ambre Narguilé
Carthage, one evening
Where a cat narrows his eyes.
And breathes in the moon.
Seegan Mabesoone
Vétiver Tonka
And away it flows,
Robbing the sun’s bright light
Such is the source!
Michiko Kaï
Santal Massoia
Let them come to me,
Poetry and your love and…
That doe on the hill!
Saki Kôno
Rose Ikebana
I nibble your ear
Which is so like a soft rose
Ah, I smell roses!
Yûmu Yamaguchi
L'actu 
Articles
Thank you for sharing.
RépondreSupprimerI wish I were better equipped to take pictures -- these are from my iPhone. The event was really lovely and poetic. Though for some reason I missed the installation inspired by Santal Massoia.
RépondreSupprimerLet them come to me,
RépondreSupprimerPoetry and your love and…
That doe on the hill!
Saki Kôno
Who needs a visual
It's absolutely right
One image less
Portia x
To-con-vey one's mood
RépondreSupprimerin sev-en-teen syll-able-s
is ve-ry dif-fic
John Cooper Clarke
Portia, you're right, the poems don't need images... but I'm mad at myself for somehow managing to miss a doe!
RépondreSupprimerChris, I guess that's why they're called "masters"!
RépondreSupprimerin the depths of the apricots
RépondreSupprimera hairpiece of jade...
the evening star