A residence to promote the cultural heritage of the Park
Nine professionals in the arts and crafts, brought together in an artistic residence, have the mission of promoting the heritage…
Promoting the country's Occitan cultural particularities is the mission entrusted to the Park.
The Park is imbued with a strong identity linked to intangible cultural heritage: Occitan culture. It gives meaning to the territory and is a vector of sustainable development in Périgord-Limousin. However, this culture is gradually disappearing. The territory has therefore given the Park the mission of seizing this heritage and making it a pillar of development of the territory.
In this context of change, culture is the foundation on which adaptation to climate change can be anchored. The causes as well as the consequences of climate change are rooted, in a large number of areas, in the ignorance of our environment, in our loss of relationship to it, and in the freedom, in the development of territories, from their specificities. Climate change is, in part, a cultural problem, an effect of our lifestyle, activities and consumer behaviors.
It is in the cultural interstice that the inhabitants of the Park can find value chains, reform territorial sectors, fit into the natural environment in such a way as to “make territory”. The loss of Occitan culture and language means a reduction in diversity, which can lead to cultural homogenization and the loss of a unique source of inspiration in understanding current societal and environmental issues.
The knowledge that intangible cultural heritage practices provide about the environment and the territory – qualification of environments, uses of the territory, understanding of ecosystems, etc. – can contribute to understanding the causes of climate change and to encourage other practices. By losing the language, we lose the uses and understanding of our environment but also the feeling of belonging to the territory: “we are no longer attached to a territory therefore we preserve it less”. Occitan, seen as a guarantee of authenticity, is capable of making the territory habitable and desirable. It is an asset for the attractiveness of the territory.
The problem therefore lies in the avoidance of cultural homogenization which would lead to the loss of a unique source of inspiration in the apprehension of the territory. If Occitan culture and language are likely to provide concrete responses to contemporary, social, environmental, cultural and economic challenges and thus to sustainably develop the territory of the Park, we still need to seize them.
A few years ago, the territory was still an active center of Occitan culture, thanks in particular to the initiatives of actors attached to their culture. Despite this deep attachment, we see within the driving forces of Occitan culture a running out of steam. The territory also suffers from the loss of natural speakers which is accompanied by a decline in knowledge. The weak coverage of the issues of Occitan both at the local level (territorial authorities) and national level (State and National Education) is due to the lack of attractiveness of the language and the culture it conveys, which struggle to demonstrate their levers possible economic conditions, their social function (“making territory”) and the meaning they bring to the territory. Occitan culture suffers from an outdated image (it is described as “folklore”) and the added value it brings to the territory lacks appropriation.
Developing the territory without taking into account its culture is doing things above groundJean-François Vignaud, IEO Limousin
The Occitan language, and the memory it conveys, are a source of representations, knowledge, practices, and also benchmarks, which allow, in close connection with the other areas of intervention of the Park, to envisage a development sustainable development of the territory but also to raise awareness among the general public of alternative ways of considering their future: in line with their environment, their culture and the specificities specific to Périgord-Limousin.
See the park charterThe Park aspires to encourage the emergence of a more sustained dynamic of projects in favor of Occitan, both on the territory and within the project it carries. It supports around fifteen project leaders per year, cultural actors (associations mainly to offer year-round Occitan cultural programming) or municipal initiatives wanting to take Occitan culture into account. The Park strives to promote the socialization of Occitan in all areas of public and private life by tending to raise awareness that Occitan is a base on which the territory can anchor itself in order to develop.
The Park can also use Occitan cultural capital to anchor its actions in the history of the country and share them.
The Park stimulates artists' interest in Occitan cultural identity and encourages contemporary expressions of it. It invites artists/artists to question Occitan culture and its perception of the Park, with the aim of sharing, crossing and evolving residents' views, representations and knowledge of their intangible heritage through an artistic approach.
These actions are aimed at residents, the main target (restore pride in their culture), Communities (raising awareness that culture is a factor of development and encouraging them to take advantage of it), tourists and tourism stakeholders ( particularize the territory), the young public (raising their awareness of culture) and to a lesser extent to date towards socio-professionals (using culture to develop the economy).
The Park's action benefits from the support of the Institute of Occitan Studies of Limousin (IEO Lemosin), resource center and project partner.
The action of the Park is supported by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region and is part of the “Regional Languages and Cultures of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Roadmap”
If we recognize in "patois" the sweet, intimate and conniving warmth of the grandmother's exclamations, we wrongly take Occitan for a language of the cultural, learned and snobbish elite, foreign to our customs. And yet, what is ben quò-mesma! However, we are talking about the same thing, what we still call “patois” here is nothing other than Occitan in its Limousin dialect variant. However, let us be careful not to brejar (quarrel) over an appellation, which is important today, at a time when the language resonates less and less in the heart of our villages, that es ben de la parlar, de la far worth the far auvir! (It’s good to speak it, cultivate it and make it heard!). JF Vignaud, IEO Limousin for the PNRPL
In Périgord-Limousin as in any territory, the loss of a regional culture and language can have profound and lasting consequences for a territory. When a regional culture and language disappear, the very fabric of local society is affected, leading to social, environmental and economic consequences. Each language and each culture contributes to the richness of the whole, offering a variety of perspectives, practices and ways of life. The loss of a regional culture means the reduction of this diversity, which can lead to cultural homogenization and the loss of a unique source of inspiration in understanding current societal and environmental issues.
It is in the cultural interstice, whether of heart or adoption, that the inhabitants of the Park can rediscover value chains, reform territorial sectors, fit into the natural environment in such a way as to " make territory”, and to invest in it.
Nine professionals in the arts and crafts, brought together in an artistic residence, have the mission of promoting the heritage…
The Park supports the preservation, transmission and promotion of Occitan culture and language. The objective…
Text size
By default
Leading
By default
Typo for dyslexia
By default