Establishing Order and Relation in the Les Jardins de Médongaule: JEUX | Pezo von Ellrichshausen

SPACE July 2026 (No. 704) 

‘What is that thing?’ This key opening question to the story should remain open. In our view, a literary work can be translated into many languages but it cannot be illustrated out of the domain of words without betraying the countless images it conveys. Thus, our interpretation for Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s famous story (The Little Prince, 1943) avoids literal representation. At the blurred edges between phenomenological and metaphysical experience, dwelling at the very heart of Les Jardins de Médongaule, there is an enigmatic void open to the firmament. Evocative of an idealised desert, this is an empty and dry landscape barely visible from its immediate surroundings. It has the presence of a circular room contained within a thick, solid fence, a low wall with a deceiving scale. 

This single room is configured as an artificial topography that descends towards a central opening in the ground. The opening is a well that mirrors the sky and the curious person who leans into it. Despite its apparent regularity, the section of the room reflects a subtle succession of unique platforms, each one with the same height but a different width. In fact, this section is the imprint, the actual trace into the ground, of a monumental but invisible perfect form: a 35m diameter sphere. ‘What is essential is invisible to the eye,’ as advised by the fox. With the minimum percentage of the total volume of the imaginary sphere, this stepping floor hemisphere is cardinally oriented. There are two pathways that lead to a curved rose garden and two doorways towards the forum-like interior. Since the lower level is sunken from natural terrain, the interior will be perceived as a reverberation chamber, as a momentary detachment and isolation both for individual introspection or collective contemplation. Indeed, this is a place where one could be reminded of the final words: ‘I’m alone… I’m alone… I’m alone…’ as voiced by the echo. 

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