Grand-Métis, Quebec is home to one of the most extraordinary and quietly magnificent cultural events in North America right now. And if you have not yet made the journey, darling, consider this your most compelling invitation.
The 27th edition of the International Garden Festival is open to the public until October 4th, 2026, and this year’s theme, Mapping Sensitivity, is as poetic and deeply considered as any we have ever encountered. Artistic Director Ève De Garie-Lamanque invited designers from around the world to create gardens through a sensitive, fundamentally inclusive, and relational approach, and the results are nothing short of breathtaking.
From 204 project proposals submitted by designers from 29 countries, five were selected for this year’s edition, joining nearly 30 contemporary gardens currently on site. Each one a living, evolving work of art that reveals itself differently with every visit as plants grow, materials shift, and light changes throughout the season.
The winning projects are as diverse and compelling as the theme itself. Hugh Taylor’s Again, a Garden from Manitoba invites visitors to contemplate the cycle of decay and life within a walled pavilion planted with native pollinator species. Frame by German architect Ulli Heckmann offers a sculptural reflection on perception and spatial experience, curating views and levels of intimacy that challenge how we see ourselves in our surroundings. Etienne Lapleau‘s Mentho-artemision from France condenses contrasting sensory landscapes into a single confined space, guiding visitors through transitions from dry to humid through sight, smell, and touch. Tainai-Meguri by Measured Architecture and collaborators from British Columbia envisions digital space as a meditative cave where nature, water, and light converge in the most hauntingly beautiful way. And Worm’s Eye by Ellen Harris from Chicago imagines a camouflage architecture that encourages an intimate, local, and entirely personal understanding of place.
A special project, Pousses de son by Quebec sound artist Tom Jacques, places sound at the very heart of the garden experience, drawing visitors into a world of attentive listening that transforms their entire perception of the surrounding landscape.
Located adjacent to the historic Les Jardins de Métis, a National Historic Site of Canada and one of the world’s 150 great gardens, the International Garden Festival creates the most extraordinary dialogue between history and modernity, conservation and innovation, tradition and the most daring contemporary creativity.
This is culture at its most immersive, most generous, and most beautiful. And it is happening right here in Quebec, until October 4th.
The International Garden Festival is open until October 4th, 2026 at Les Jardins de Métis, Grand-Métis, Quebec. Visit refordgardens.com for more information.
