Les Vaîtes is an area on the edge of the countryside and the city of Besançon, where some historic worker orchards are located. Since 2005, the city council has been promoting an urban development project aimed at creating an “eco-district”, which at the time led to the expropriation of a large number of agricultural plots which were then reclassified as land for development. The project thus involved the almost total destruction of orchards and natural areas maintained until now by a self-organized community.

For a month, Anaïs Florin walked, talked, collected stories, anecdotes and feelings from the people who cultivate the land of the gardens of Les Vaîtes. Our gardens were made real through two different interventions.

This second intervention took place at Les Vaîtes, in front of the orchard area concerned by the urban development project. This time, the intervention consisted in the pasting of two billboards, to make the few testimonies of gardeners, collected by Anaïs Florin during her stay in Besançon, resound :

“Toucher la terre c’est toujours un moment fort, c’est apaisant.”
“Touching the earth is always a strong moment, it’s soothing.”

“Ici on travaille avec le vivant.”
“Here we work with the living.”

“Jardiner c’est la tendresse. C’est alimenter le regard, c’est alimenter le coeur.”
“Gardening is tenderness. It’s feeding the eyes, it’s feeding the heart.”