Patrimoines en résistance, de Tombouctou à Odessa

Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine

The exhibition brings together an exceptional collection of graphic documents, contemporary artworks and digital replicas of lost sites. In the manner of a major piece of reportage, the whole weaves a documented, visual and sensitive narrative, in which the perspectives of actors and witnesses, architects and artists intersect. From Tombouctou to Odessa, from Bâmiyân to Gaza, armed conflicts turn heritage into a preferred target. Faced with these destructions, the exhibition Patrimoines en résistance examines the gestures of erasure, but also the forms of resistance and reparation that make it possible to think about the future starting from ruins. In 2012, the destruction of the mausoleums of Tombouctou, listed as UNESCO World Heritage, marked a historic turning point: for the first time, the deliberate annihilation of cultural monuments was classified as a war crime by the Cour pénale internationale. An unprecedented international mobilisation then began to rebuild the destroyed sites, drawing on archaeological excavations and the memory of Malian craftsmen. While war has always caused destruction, the early twenty-first century reveals an intensification and systematisation of attacks on cultural and natural heritage. The exhibition sheds light on this contemporary reality and raises an essential question: how does war reveal what is irremediably lost, while also bringing forth the gestures of resistance that make future reparation possible? Through a remarkable collection of maps, texts, models, photographs, videos, contemporary works and digital replicas produced by Iconem, the exhibition offers a journey in three sequences. Conceived as a major piece of reportage, it weaves a documented, visual and sensitive narrative, crossing the perspectives of architects, artists, researchers, field actors and witnesses. By distancing itself from the world's tumult, the exhibition offers visitors an indispensable moment of reflection amid the continuous flow of information. The three sequences of the exhibition Erase Today, the destruction of heritage takes multiple forms: the dynamiting of emblematic sites, the massive bombing of cities, the deliberate abandonment of territories, the looting and trafficking of cultural goods. This erasure also affects ordinary and intangible heritage, through the displacement of populations, "cultural cleansing", urbicide, ruricide or ecocide. Far from the image of a "clean" war, these practices reveal the scale of the violence inflicted on places and societies. Resist Faced with erasure, forms of resistance emerge. Alongside major international institutions, NGOs, associations, citizen collectives, architects and researchers act to protect, document and pass on threatened heritage. On conflict grounds, every everyday gesture, every account, becomes an act of resistance, helping to preserve memory and support the physical and psychological survival of populations. Repair In the twenty-first century, post-conflict reparation goes beyond mere material reconstruction. It calls for a global approach, attentive to territories, bodies and minds. To repair also means to "remake society", to rebuild bonds, to pass on knowledge and to place memory at the heart of processes of renewal. Heritage then becomes an essential lever for envisioning a shared future, in continuity with the past and the living.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗