The head of the herbarium of the Museum of Natural History, on a mission to the Majorelle garden, is constantly sharing his passion for botany with the general public. And throwing in particular bridges with the jewelers, like recently Chaumet, whose floral jewelry is inspired by the richness and beauty of the plant world.
by Valentin Pérez
Exit, transmit, alert, dazzle, decompartmentalize: in ten years, Marc Jeanson has shaped his job as a botanist, determining the objectives that were close to his heart. “After a while, as a researcher, I felt limited in hyperspecialization. I wanted to kiss a more global approach, to throw bridges, says the doctor in plant systematics (part of the botanical relating to the classification of plants) of 41 years. When a species disappears, it is, of course, a genetic heritage that leaves, but also an aesthetic, a poetry … “
Thus, the head of the herbarium of the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) gradually become an ambassador of his discipline with the general public, a capable scientist, thanks to his clear explanations and his Ability to share its amazes, to captivate without barber. After having, with the help of journalist Charlotte Fauve, signed Botanist (Grasset, 2019), a book that is both informative and thrilling, he lent himself from good thanks to conferences, round tables, radio or radio shows television.
Pedagogy by beauty
Likewise, he seized the outstretched hand of the chaumet jewelry house, whose plant universe is an infinite source of inspiration, to play advisers and exhibition commissioners mixing jewelry, sketches and works of Art (“DESS (e) in nature”, in 2019, and “Plant – The School of Beauty”, in 2022).
Other researchers linked to a public institution would undoubtedly have rejected this house in the luxury group LVMH. Retorts that he defends “a form of pedagogy by beauty”. He has especially, for three years, operated on a side step by taking the lead in the botanical department of the Majorelle garden, in Marrakech: “Unlike my mission on the herbarium at the MNHN, it is, here, to preserve A place that welcomes the public. “Or 600,000 visitors per year.
A taste for sharing that dates back to his youth. Coming from a family of the middle class of Savigny-sur-Ardres, a village of the Marne, Marc Jeanson has a first click by discovering, in a report of the program “Ushuaïa”, on TF1, the botanist Patrick Blanc in Observing adeniums and Dorstenias on the island of Socotra (Yemen). “I must have been 15 years old, I was already fascinated by the living, animals. And the faconde of Patrick Blanc, his vocabulary, his love for plants radiated.” The inspiring readings of Théodore Monod or Francis Hallé will do the rest .
Caduque approach
With Patrick Blanc, the inventor of plant walls, he will leave in southern Mali for exhilarating expeditions: “Even when we prepare his mission in the smallest detail, we always have surprises. Good: an unexpected flowering , a perfect stage of fruiting, pollinators that we will be able to observe … and sometimes, disappointments: monocultures that replace areas to be preserved, for example. Today, even in national parks we hear the chainsaws … ”
a Majorelle, which he will leave in October 2023, he worked for the garden to agree with biodiversity. “Historically, the pleasure garden has been thought of as the apotheosis of the civilized in the wild world. However, in our world in the grip of global warming, this approach is obsolete. All gardens should be botanical gardens.”