• Director(s):

    EBERMANN (TIMOTHEE)

  • Producer(s):

    Bo Travail !, ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2017

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

The Little Sparta garden is South of Edinburgh and lost in the Pentland. It was Ian Hamilton Finlay’s art piece of a lifetime. The late twentieth century Scottish poet and artist was an influent member of the experimental movement referred to as “concrete poetry”. 

To reach Little Sparta, you need to cross the meadows on foot to finally enter this extraordinary garden. In 1966, Ian Hamilton Finlay decides to settle here with his wife Sue to design a garden dedicated to poetry where he will be able to create his art and disseminate it throughout his estate. For 40 years, the couple wil shape and modify the landscape: Sue is in charge of the planting and Ian conceives the pieces – numbering beyond two hundred and fifty and created in collaboration with other artists. Multiple themes inspire Finlay; the Second World War is ubiquitous in his work.