Avignon reopened a quarry as a stage for another world At France’s Festival d’Avignon, Philippe Quesne’s Le Jardin des délices premiered in Boulbon quarry on 6 July 2023. Author: EVENTODIT Editorial Team Published: 2026.11.08 Original URL: https://eventodit.com/en/stories/avignon-2023-boulbon-quarry-use-agreement-creative-stage.html Practical summary Event overview: At France’s Festival d’Avignon, Philippe Quesne’s Le Jardin des délices premiered in Boulbon quarry on 6 July 2023. Key decision: Judge why the landscape matters to the work alongside the time, preparation and restoration required to use it. Responsible roles / intended readers: Planners, artistic directors, producers and venue-hire staff developing a performance and its setting together Record / next task: The place’s role in the work, conditions from preparation through return, agreed responsibilities and unresolved contract items Basis of information: Editorial analysis distinguishes official performance records, the artist’s explanation and a council resolution. Editorial review: 2026-11-08 The landscape became a starting point for the work The producer’s photograph of the July 2023 Boulbon performance shows a bus and figures beneath a triangle of light against the quarry cliff. In a March 2023 official interview, Philippe Quesne imagined Boulbon quarry as a crater or a dead-end landscape in a western. Rather than reproducing an existing painting, he envisaged making another world in that place. What stands out is that he did not begin by imagining a backdrop to conceal the quarry. The editorial team reads this as choosing to work with a place’s existing appearance and memory. It offers a different starting point for spectators from a landscape constructed inside a theatre. This interpretation is not a finding about audience satisfaction. For such a performance, a venue is more than an address. What to build, what to retain, and where spectators sit in relation to the landscape are creative choices. Securing the place therefore cannot be completed independently of developing the work. The landscape and performance facilities had to be prepared together The festival’s current official venue description says the quarry is no longer worked and requires everything from electricity and a stage to dressing rooms and a refreshment area to be installed. It also reports site and audience-safety improvements since 2023 with municipal support. Using a natural setting does not necessarily mean less preparation. Work that is less visible in an equipped theatre becomes a separate production task here. The choice to preserve a landscape must be considered alongside the facilities to add for the performance. Treating distinctiveness solely as an advantage outside the quotation misses this difference. How much can be added while retaining the view, and who takes part in installation and removal, affect cost and time. The public material does not establish actual cost changes or which approach was cheaper. The authorised use period extended beyond performance dates At its meeting on 26 May 2023, Boulbon’s council authorised the mayor to sign a quarry-use agreement for 6 May–11 August. The resolution is not the signed agreement or proof of unrestricted access on every day. The transferable point is not simply that the period was long. Performance dates differ from the period needed to enter, prepare and clear the site. Comparing only event days can leave installation, rehearsals and removal outside the discussion of use. A temporary date hold also differs from agreeing actual use conditions. The public material does not establish this project’s hold process or shortlist. It would therefore be wrong to reconstruct smooth negotiations or better terms than another venue offered. The proposed agreement covered maintenance and restoration The same minutes describe an agreement involving the festival, municipality and National Forestry Office, ONF. Its purposes included creating an outdoor-theatre area, maintenance and safety, liability for incidents and restoration. The festival would remain the sole organiser and responsible party. This shows why an owner’s permission to hold a performance cannot substitute for every preparation. Artists need room to work with the landscape, but artistic need does not itself authorise additions or alterations. The changes required by the work must meet the changes the place can accommodate. Restoration is not merely final cleaning unrelated to the work. What stays and what must be removed can shape the installation from the outset. However, this account of the agreement’s purposes does not establish individual damage payments, insurance arrangements or the results of the actual return inspection. Compare the scenes a place enables, rather than equal floor areas The editorial comparison drawn from this case is that an equipped theatre and a landscape stage are different offers. The former can be assessed around the facilities available; the latter also requires decisions about what to create and restore. This does not claim the festival actually compared those two candidates. If the landscape is an important character in the work, there is a reason to choose it. If essential changes or preparation time are unavailable, an impressive setting alone cannot sustain that choice. Before comparing venue names and hire fees, planners can compare which scene must survive and what can change. Costs include time for venue and production teams to make adjustments together, as well as facilities brought to the site. Promising an area or experience before checking authority and use conditions can fix a description that later becomes difficult to revise. Checking conditions can help make the possible scenes more concrete, rather than simply constrain creativity. Agree the conditions needed to preserve a scene in Korea A local festival or small performance in Korea can start by asking how an older space’s appearance will be experienced as part of the work. Venue managers and production staff can then consider the areas, preparation/performance/removal times, changes and restoration required. France’s forestry relationships and council procedure are not a Korean venue-hire model. If part of the proposed use is unavailable, another venue or different staging may be appropriate. Working with a place’s character differs from preserving an original concept at all costs. The useful result is more than an assessment of how special the venue looked: it is agreement on the scene spectators can encounter and the use needed to create it. Conclusion Boulbon brings together the imagination to read a landscape as a work and the conditions for using it. A sound venue decision goes beyond securing attractive dates. Agreeing what will be created, used and restored for the audience’s scene turns a distinctive place into a concrete stage for performance. Application conditions Confirm actual authority to use the Korean site, technical/safety/access requirements and contract terms separately with responsible parties. French forestry relationships and council procedure are not general Korean rules. Unconfirmed information The signed agreement, actual fees/deposits/cancellation terms, date-hold and shortlist process, return inspection and audience response were not verified. The minutes authorise signature. No on-site reporting or external expert review was undertaken. Sources Festival d’Avignon · 2023 production archive · checked 8 Nov 2026 https://festival-avignon.com/fr/edition-2023/programmation/le-jardin-des-delices-331864 Philippe Quesne · March 2023 official interview · checked 8 Nov 2026 https://festival-avignon.com/fr/entretien-avec-philippe-quesne-342301 Festival d’Avignon · quarry description · checked 8 Nov 2026 https://festival-avignon.com/fr/lieux/carriere-de-boulbon-36632 Boulbon council · 26 May 2023 minutes, pp5–6, public copy · checked 8 Nov 2026 https://api-politique.pappers.fr/territoire/document/2ec52ce489e0c9c368a4331894488e36/pdf Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne · production dossier, pp3–4 · checked 8 Nov 2026 https://www.vidy.ch/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/dprod-quesne-jardin-des-delices-fr-260213.pdf Cattzy · 2011 Boulbon photograph/terms · checked 8 Nov 2026 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sc%C3%A8ne_Mouawad_Festival_d%27Avignon_2011.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 · photograph licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/