Land and Cities

2nd edition from 14 May to 13 July 2022 in Versailles

14 May 2022Contact

For its 2022 edition, the BAP! will have the theme “Land and cities”.
Exhibitions, conferences, debates, interactive workshops… This year’s line-up promises to be enriching. It will offer perspectives from partners with varied expertise: five local authorities and associated agencies, two national graduate schools, three cultural establishments, and two planning institutions.

The link between land and cities will be explored in all its forms: landscaped foundation, support of living beings, nourishing earth, terroirs brimming with natural resources, circular development, earth construction.

As with our previous edition, this year’s Biennale will be hosted by Versailles.

Nine exhibitions at the heart of the event, designed around the link between land and cities, will set the tone for the BAP! 2022. Among the topics to discover: a new way of looking at soil and land resources, new practices for more resilient architecture and landscaping.

“Down to Earth” exhibition by L'Institut Paris Region

A new, more sensitive understanding of the soils we shape, which in turn shape our lives, our cities, and our landscapes.

The exhibition “Down to Earth” will present a made in the Île-de-France, living, large-format model of the Île-de-France region. At the surface, you’ll see the algae, mosses and lichens that grow in our forests, gardens and urban areas. A long geological cross-section of the Paris basin reveals what’s going on beneath our feet, accompanied by an explosive and experimental map designed by the Société d’objets cartographiques (SOC). The exhibition will showcase uncommon scales and overlooked resources in formats that are as spectacular as they are poetic, sensitive and scientific.

Photograph by Eric Garault

Photograph by Pierre-Yves Brunaud

Photograph by Amàco

Our exhibition curator

Cécile Diguet

Director of the department of Urban planning, Development and Territories at L’Institut Paris Region.

Exhibition curator

“We have a great need for operations that resensitise, reimagine, repopulate the imagination”, writes philosopher Isabelle Stengers in

A common soil, published in 2019. The exhibition “Down to Earth” aims to respond to this call. It will reveal the links that unite Île-de-France’s geographic foundation, land use and soil use, so we can better understand how we are anchored to this territory. Geological materials have shaped the valleys and landscapes where human settlements have proliferated. The qualities of the soil have allowed the development of certain cultures, forests, vernacular architectures, and so on. This base constitutes our foundation on a daily basis. Understanding it better will allow us to better inhabit and live with it.

See also



Location details

Address: 3, avenue de Paris - Versailles

RER C (Versailles Château/Rive Gauche)

This page is linked to the following categories :
Environment | Urban planning