l'étrangère is delighted to announce the inauguration of Le Jardin hospitalier, a new site-specific commission by the British artist Jyll Bradley. This permanent art work is produced by contemporary art production agency artconnexion and is sited at the Hôpital Roger Salengro, CHRU, Lille, France - Northern Europe's largest public hospital complex. For the work, the artist has transformed a 100m long, window-less corridor into an immersive installation consisting of backlit photography, literary text and tactile sculptural elements.

Le Jardin hospitalier is produced under the auspices of the Fondation de France 'New Patrons' programme (1) whereby individuals and organisations identify the need for an art work. The building of a new wing of the Hôpital Roger Salengro prompted staff to call upon an artist to redefine the corridor that symbolically connects this wing to the old wing. artconnexion brought artist Jyll Bradley to the project and worked closely with her and the hospital commissioning group in the roles of curation, production and mediation.

Bradley’s installation turns the previously dark, interminable corridor into a light-filled promenade with a strong sense of place. Central to the work is an area called ‘The Source’, where people can sit, relax and explore the ideas behind the project.

Le Jardin hospitalier is inspired by Bradley's early research into Lille's largely forgotten history as a major hub of innovation in the development of botanical medicine. Echoes of this survive in Lille today through a cluster of remarkable botanical spaces, places and people. Through her installation - which features large backlit scenes from these locations - Bradley makes an existential connection between the care of plants and people, drawing parallels between the architectures and systems that arise to support each.

Le Jardin hospitalier continues Bradley’s use of light as a meeting point that brings together photography, literature and sculpture in order to create dynamic spaces where personal and social encounters are possible.

Through her use of light, texture and rhythm, Bradley transforms the transitory space of the corridor into a journey where each image becomes a portal to an alternative space: one of greenery, lightness and well-being. The installation explores the nuanced meanings that ‘hospitalier’ embodies: not just the medicinal treatment of sick patients, but also the idea of hospitality and welcome as embedded within the hospital itself.

One of the many inspirations for the work is Marcel Proust’s seven volume novel sequence, À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of things past). Says Bradley: ‘One of the most significant books to me as an artist is Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of things past. With his work I first became a reader, and it helped me as a young student develop an ethical position regarding the relationship between artist, art and viewer. There is a passage early on where young Proust describes walking with his grandfather down a path that is shuttered both sides by a hawthorn hedge in full bloom. The scent and the sight are intoxicating and overwhelming. It is literally like a corridor of sensation. As he progresses down it, he goes from being overwhelmed by observation of detail of things “other to him” – the flowers, the scent – to a universal place of becoming: a profound sense of self-awareness. The passage – really a rite of passage – speaks to me of how the journey is as important an experience as the destination. It was this passage of Proust’s that has continued to inform my thinking of Le Jardin hospitalier.’

A new publication will accompany the inauguration of Le Jardin hospitalier. This work designed by Anne Odling-Smee of O-SB Design who worked closely with Jyll Bradley will include an interview between Bradley and Amanda Crabtree of artconnexion. The work will also feature a newly commissioned essay by Andrew Renton, Director of Marlborough Contemporary and Professor of Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London.

For more information visit: http://jyllbradley.com/

Notes

1 The New Patrons programme initiated by the Fondation de France helps citizens confronted by issues of society to associate contemporary artists with their concerns by way of a commission. Its originality lies in a new cooperation between three parties: the artist, the citizen placing the commission, and the cultural mediator approved by the Fondation de France, accompanied by public and private partners brought together around the project.