The Faculty of Architecture of the University of Montenegro represents Montenegro at the 13th International Horticultural Exhibition Florales Internationales 2024, in Nantes, France, from May 17 to 27, as the only country from the region participating in this prestigious event.
The Montenegrin pavilion "Games in Salt" (Ludis in Sale) was designed by final year students: Irina Kusovac, Sara Stijepović, Ognjen Mandić i Marko Jovanovic under the mentorship of Prof. dr Svetlana Perović, Assoc. Ph.D Eme Alihodžić Jašarović and associate dr Jelene Bajić Šestović, Assoc. Ph.D Sanje Savić, dr Nevene Mašanović and M.Sc Nemanja Milićević.
This is the 13th "Floralies Internationales" exhibition with a tradition of being held every five years since 1956. The Faculty of Architecture in Podgorica, UCG, in partnership with the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, and based on the signed Memorandum of Cooperation and with the support of the Capital City, represents Montenegro in the subcategory "Games from childhood". Among 100 exhibitors, primarily from France and 24 countries from abroad, Montenegro is the only country from the region.
Since France is the host of this year's Olympic Games, the theme of the event is "Flower Games", divided into five sub-themes: Water Games, Childhood Games, Intellectual Games, Intellectual Games and Sports Games. It is one of the leading horticultural events in Europe, which is visited by up to 250.000 people and is considered one of the most visited events in France.
"The interactive, minimalistic, but also playful pavilion of Montenegro plays with the complex themes of context, multiscalarness, tactility, ambiguity, seemingly with childlike ease. The project interprets the characteristic attributes of the Montenegrin context, taking the Ulcinj salt pan, but also the traditional architecture and the garden as inspiration," the announcement states.
Using salt as a local and Mediterranean material, building a pavilion with salt cubes, the students pointed out its physical, artistic and phenomenological potential, but also pointed out its social, economic and ecological role.
"This approach indicates that salt can become a paradigm for some new approaches in design, accentuating the principle of integration of the physical and content values of the garden and pavilion. In the context of the theme of the event, the Montenegrin team, with salt walls that allude to the traditional Montenegrin stone masonry, created three gardens, play areas, gardens, in which there are characteristic carefully selected plants of the Montenegrin climate: olive, citrus and fig," the announcement reads. .
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