Programmes in progress

 

Belarus 2002-2006

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, it would seem that the international community has forgotten this tragic event. Patrimoine sans frontières has therefore decided to take action, to ”give voice” to the people of the affected areas, to help them express themselves and to restore international solidarity to ensure that this tragedy is neither trivialised nor forgotten.

 

Within the framework of the European Community’s international programme “CORE” (Co-operation for Rehabilitation) for the improvement of living conditions in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster, Patrimoine sans frontières has, since 2002, been working on a “culture of radiology and remembrance” programme whose objectives are the development and intergenerational conveyance of memories and experiences of the accident and a “practical radiology” culture .

  Patrimoine sans frontières has already initiated a collective project which will commemorate this event, gathering witness reports and documentation on the disaster which will be used as a source of inspiration for artists and craftsmen to create works of art which will consequently be put together and presented during a travelling exhibition throughout Belarus and Europe in 2006. This project aims to help present and visually express the reality that is so often described as being impossible to relate or represent in any way.

  The “Tell me a story, Mr cloud…” project is also part Psf’s action in Belarus. This project aims to help school children express their own sensitive and symbolic understanding of the disaster. The children will be encouraged to imagine, create and illustrate stories based on the theme of “the passing of the cloud” and these stories will be duly reproduced and published in DVD format.

  And finally, special “Gardens and kitchens” workshops will be set up and run in small gardens close to a selection of schools in Belarus, to teach the children simple techniques for reducing food contamination. These workshops will culminate with the publication of an educational document on the subject.

 

To find out more, pdf file 290 ko

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Albania 2001-2010

 

Patrimoine sans frontières commitment in Albania dates back to 1995, when the Albanian Ministry of Culture entrusted the association with a mission for the conservation of the photo and picture library of Shkodra.
In 1999, Psf was once again solicited by the Albanian Ministry of Culture, this time to help preserve the Christian edifices of the churches of the historical town of Voskopojë, Albania. A restoration programme of conservation and development was consequently launched by Psf and is currently ongoing.

Situated on the main road between Venice and Constantinople, Voskopojë was one of the most prosperous cities of the Balkans during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, however, only six religious edifices remain, for the most part all decorated with mural paintings of high quality but all, unfortunately, in a precarious state of disrepair.

 

 

In 2001, Psf launched a campaign to alert and increase awareness about the fragility of the Voskopojë churches and notably added Voskopojë to the list of the 100 most threatened monuments of the World Monuments Watch list.
In 2002, an agreement was signed with the “Institut des Monuments de Culture d’Albanie” - IMK (Institute of Cultural Monuments of Albania). With initial support from the French Embassy in Albania and the World Monuments Fund, the association raised funds and, in 2004, set up an international multidisciplinary field workshop within the framework of the European Commission’s "Culture 2000" programme.
This field workshop of fresco restoration, co-organised with the INP (scientific management), the IMK and the TEI of Athens took place in the summer of 2004. Archaeological excavations were also done, along with art history research and studies in town planning, architecture and climatology. Photogrammetric prints were especially developed for this project.

In 2005, Psf has continued working on this project, especially developing the scientific and educational elements of the field workshop of 2004: archaeology, climatology, architecture.... The fresco restoration work and art historical research will continue this year in conjunction with the INP as project leader and co-organised by Psf, IMK, “Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg” and the “Istituto Centrale per il Restauro” (ICR).

Patrimoine sans frontières has also just published the first volume of a book which summarises the work and research undertaken to date with the aim of encouraging the development and promotion of long-term cultural tourism.

 

To find out more , pdf file 180 ko

 

Article (in French only) published in Le Monde, 2nd & 3rd September 2005

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Cameroon 1996-2007

In the early nineties, traditional Musgum architectural techniques were the priviledged knowledge of just a handful of eldery people in the Cameroon.  In 1996, following an appeal from the Musgum Cultural Association, Patrimoine sans frontières organised, in Mourla in north Cameroon, an educational construction site whose objective was to enable locals and experts to learn about these special techniques, to pass them on along with the cultural knowledge and to generally preserve this savoir-faire. A land plot of 5 huts was set up on the site, and huts were constructed showing a variety of decorative motifs, representative of different regions of Cameroon. Throughout the process the construction work was carefully documented by an architecture student and a photographer for future reference.

 

 

In 2004, Patrimoine sans frontières and “Parenthèses Editions” co-published a scientific work on Musgum mud architecture, co-written by Christian Seignobos, geographer and researche director of the “Institut de Recherche pour le Développement” (Research Institute of Development) and the architect Fabien Jamin. This publication “La Case-Obus, histoire et reconstruction”, retraces the history of the Musgum people and the habitation styles and techniques of the region. 

The Musgum Cultural Association has since decided to continue this project with Patrimoine sans frontières and, in order to raise international awareness, a travelling exhibition is touring in Europe and Africa. The exhibition was inaugurated in October 2005 at the Belgium Architecture Foundation in Brussels, and, in November 2005, presented at Maroua, in the extreme north of Cameroon. It will now travel on to a variety of other towns and cities in Europe and Africa. The official co-producers of this exhibition with Patrimoine sans frontières are the “Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine”, the “Institut de Recherche pour le développement”, and the Musgum Cultural Association (ACM).

 

To find out more , pdf file 236 ko

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Completed programmes

 

Salima, village of Mont-Liban, 2001-2003

The mountain village of Salima in Lebanon, inhabited by a mixed population of Druzian and Christian communities was severly damaged, on a human, physical and psychological level by the Lebanese civil war. It was one of the first villages to be destroyed and is one of the last to be able to return to any resemblance of normality for its inhabitants. This delay has, however, spared Salima from the massive and anarchic reconstruction programmes which threaten other such villages of the Mont-Liban region. Today, the rehabilatation and renconstruction of this village is being conducted in a context of respect for its cultural heritage. The village of Salima has in fact become a symbol of the conservation of cultural heritage.

 

 

The work and actions of Patrimoine sans frontières in Salima aims to encourage the joint reappropriation of public areas of the village by the two communities; Druzian and Christian, using projects of contemporary art and creativity. From 2001 to 2003, an architectural and town planning project was set up to accompany reconstruction plans with the objective of respecting the local communities and their cultural heritage

 

To find out more , pdf file 334 ko

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Hanoï, symposium on the Long Bien bridge, 2001

Built by the French in 1902, north-east of Hanoï, the Long Bien bridge (previously the Paul Doumer bridge) was the first bridge to cross the red river in Vietnam, with its 19 metallic spans, it is 1.682 m long and designed by Gustave Eiffel.

 

 

Built during the period of the French colonisation of Vietnam, the Long Bien bridge of Hanoï was witness to and suffered the effects of two wars against the French and the Americans respectively. Between 1967 and 1972 the bridge was severely bombed and damaged and became a symbol of the resistance and courage of the Vietnam people. Of course its value is not only symbolic, the bridge has a primordial role; to link the town centre of Hanoï with the periphery roads on the outskirts of the city and also the main road from Hanoï to China.

It was Patrimoine sans frontières that was solicited by both French and foreign institutions to intervene in favour of the restoration of this magnificent bridge. Such a project required wider reflection and research on similar types of works of art and engineering and necessitated the intervention of international expertise and savoir-faire from other countries worldwide.

Patrimoine sans frontières therefore immediately established a preliminary inventory of data and information that existed on the subject and, on 12th and 13th October 2001, organised an international symposium at the “CNAM” in Paris, based on the conservation of the bridge and the symbolic and urban role of such metallic works of art and engineering of the end of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century.

 

To find out more , pdf file 572 ko

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"Les maisons du bonheur", 2001 ("The Houses of happiness", 2001)

In 2001, at the invitiation of the “Institut français d’architecture” (French Institute of Architecture), 133 architects took part in an humanitarian action with Patrimoine sans frontières. Using a building kit for the creation of a miniature model of a house and a piece of land in the shape of a piece of jigsaw, each architect was challenged to create his/her “Maison du bonheur” ("Houses of happiness"), and was free to use all poetic, critical, utopic and humouristic licence and imagination…

 

 

A unique collection of no less than 133 miniature models, signed and free of copyright, were consequently created and presented to the public at the Palais de Chaillot (in the future “Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine”) during a 4 day Heritage Fair in Paris.

These miniature models were then put up for auction and no less than 76 000 euros was raised and put towards the funding of cultural heritage conservation projects in Voskopojë, Albania and Salima in Lebanon.

 

To find more, pdf file 180ko

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"Patrimoine y es-tu ?" (Heritage are you there?) 1998-2002

 

 

From 1998 to 2002, in conjunction with the French Ministry of Education, Patrimoine sans frontières set up a project to inspire primary school children and to raise their awareness and understanding of culture and heritage in general.

 

To find out more, pdf file 150 ko

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For the reconstruction of Sarajevo

From April to May 1994, Patrimoine sans frontières organised a stay in Paris for a group of architects from Sarajevo, setting up contacts for them with various associations and organisations, individual professionals and the media. 

 

 

Psf raised the necessary funds to finance the stay for each architect, to enable them to produce the documents necessary for their awareness building projects and to enable them to carry on their tour of other cities in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Patrimoine sans frontières accompanied the architects in the different stages of their projects and helped them with their overseas contacts.

 

To find out more ,pdf file 134 ko

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Preservation of Lebanese Cultural Heritage

 

BEYROUTH CITY CENTRE
The cultural heritage of Beyrouth was in danger of being even more destroyed during the reconstruction of the city than it was during 17 years of war. Patrimoine sans frontières got involved by launching alert campaigns to raise awareness about the problem, producing documentation and organising symposiums and conferences to open up public debate on the issue as a whole. This consequently led to attempts to modify the original reconstruction plans for the city and help re-orientate these plans so that they take into consideration the importance of the cultural heritage of the city and conserve its architecture and archaeology.

 

 

THE COASTAL TOWNS
Patrimoine sans frontières also took the lead role in informing and alerting the public and specialist organisations against making the same irreparable errors in the costal towns in favour of promoting economic development and tourism of these areas. The symposium, organised in Beyrouth in April 1996, along with several press articles published in the media have helped to raise the awareness of the Lebanese people regarding these issues.

 

To find out more , pdf file 535 ko

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Albania, photo and picture library of Shkodra

Patrimoine sans frontières also contributed to the salvation of the Albanian photo and picture library in the town of Shkodra. This project ensured the survival of irreplaceable heritage archives documenting the history of the Balkans and made sure that these were made available to international organisations and the Albanian people themselves. Many Albanians knew that this photo and picture library existed, however very few had had access at the time...

 

 

To find out more , pdf file 110 ko

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Kosovo, Museum of Pristina

During the war in Kosovo, the Museum of Pristina had to be closed down and its organisation and resources were completely disrupted.

 

 

The conservation team of the museum have since initiated a project of real museology, motivated by the desire to re-open the museum as soon as possible. They were however confronted with a cruel lack of resources and finances for this project, essential for day to day running of the museum, scientific research and the museology work itself (renovation of the museum, presentation of a permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, cultural action...).

 

To find out more , pdf file 116 ko