Set in the Montréal Botanical Garden’s collection of apple trees, a sculpture composed of three vertical volumes of Corten steel and two horizontal blocks of granite that are slightly concave at the top offer a window that opens to the nature surrounding it.

The title, Regarder les pommetiers (Look at the Apple Trees), is a direct invitation to contemplation. Embracing its vocation of mediator between nature and culture, the artwork borrows from architecture to provide a frame through which viewers are encouraged to consider the aesthetic qualities of the surrounding landscape. Like a photographic device, it focuses the gaze and accentuates the value of this environment.

The presence of the artwork also encourages visitors to take a break. The artist has in fact designed the artwork as a stopping place – a space to sit, relax, and observe. “I tried . . . to create a contemporary work that leads us to look at certain points of view more intensely: a welcoming element, offering a moment of rest on a given itinerary, where the gaze is projected and wanders with more intensity and attention to certain chosen views.” 1


1. Jocelyne Alloucherie, project submission, July 2006 (our translation).

The artwork is the result of a public commission by the Ville de Montréal to mark the 75th anniversary of the Montreal Botanical Garden, the famous institution founded by Brother Marie-Victorin. Recognized for its 22,000 plant species and cultivars and ten exhibition greenhouses, the Botanical Garden is considered one of the most important in the world. It also contains ten works of public art that contribute, in their way, to people’s comprehension of and integration with nature.