The International Garden Festival is preparing its 11th edition and is issuing a call for proposals to select designers to create contemporary gardens around the theme of “Paradise”. The Festival will be held from June 26 to October 3, 2010 at Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens, in Grand-Métis, Québec, Canada. This international call for proposals is open to all landscape architects, architects, designers and artists, from Canada and abroad, who are encouraged to form multidisciplinary teams.

The Theme of the 2010 Festival is: “PARADISE”
Since the beginning of time humans have imagined paradise on earth as a garden. These places, by evoking our senses, have pulled us out of our everyday world to experience the sublime. What does paradise look like today?

Building on emerging practices in landscape architecture, designers are invited to imagine their garden of paradise; a creation that will speak to the history of gardening, to philosophy, to religion and to history in general, as well as to contemporary society and to your own personal history.

For this 11th edition, the Festival will present 20 temporary gardens along with a programme that will include a range of activities and events related to landscape architecture and for the general public (workshops, lectures, exhibitions).

The International Garden Festival and its designers have garnered many regional, provincial and national awards. The event was awarded the prix Hector-Fabre 2007 by Québec’s ministère des Relations internationales in recognition of the event’s contribution to the international reputation of Québec and the Gaspésie and Lower St. Lawrence regions.