Cahors Juin Jardins

Cahors Juin Jardins: When Art Takes Root in Gardens

Since 2006, the Cahors Juin Jardins festival has transformed the city of Cahors and its surroundings into an open-air artistic trail, at the crossroads of contemporary art, gardens, and landscape. Born during the national event "Rendez-vous aux jardins" and as part of the labeled remarkable gardens of Cahors, the festival has established itself as a major cultural event in the Lot department and the Occitanie region.

A Festival Rooted in Environmental Issues

Each year, Cahors Juin Jardins explores new creative spaces around an annual theme related to environmental issues. The festival weaves connections between art, gardens, landscape, and cultural rights, fostering dialogue between artists, scientists, biologists, botanists, and agricultural professionals. This transdisciplinary approach makes it a unique laboratory for reflection on our relationship with the living world and nature.

Gardens as Creative Spaces

The heart of the festival lies in the opening of about twenty private and public gardens in Cahors, transformed for the occasion into exhibition and creation spaces. The city's secret gardens, usually hidden behind the walls of medieval houses, open their doors to the public for a weekend, offering a unique discovery trail where works of art, installations, readings, and performances mingle.

In addition to the urban trail, landscape gardens are scattered throughout the Lot region—Lot Valley, vineyard valley, Grand Quercy—offering a circuit of animated gardens to discover throughout June.

A Rich and Accessible Program

Alongside the contemporary art exhibitions presented in the gardens, the festival offers numerous cultural and educational activities:

• Installations and exhibitions by artists working at the intersection of art and ecology
• Performances, concerts, and shows in the gardens and public spaces
• Participatory workshops for all audiences, children and adults
• Guided tours of public and private gardens
• Conferences and round tables with scientists and living world specialists
• Plant and art craft markets
• Gourmet meals prepared by local producers

Recognized Commitment

Labeled a Territorial Innovation Hub by the Ministry of Culture, Cahors Juin Jardins is part of a regional dynamic that goes beyond a simple cultural event. The festival collaborates with the departmental network "Plantes & Cie" and relies on an engaged network of associations and citizens.

The Juin Jardins association, which organizes the festival, develops mediation actions, artist residencies, and educational projects throughout the year, keeping the link between art, nature, and citizenship alive well beyond the month of June.

About Fifteen Artists Invited Each Year

Each year, the festival invites about fifteen artists working in various disciplines: sculpture, installation, textile, ceramics, performance, multimedia, sound art. The works are created in connection with the gardens that host them, in an intimate dialogue between artistic creation and the vegetal, mineral, water, and light.