A workshop with French (École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence), Portuguese (Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa), and Spanish (University of Cáceres) students aimed at investigating living beings and associated environments in the French Alps. This action took place in two sessions, allowing students to develop some work among themselves: one week in April 2023 and a second week in November 2023 in the village of Auzet. This village, which has been undergoing a development process focused on the rehabilitation of mountain agriculture and the safeguarding of natural resources for the past 30 years, served as a study object for students and teachers, who had the opportunity to meet and question local residents and development agents. The second session of the workshop took place in association with the Locus Sonus Vitae laboratory, which allowed the installation of a micro Locus Stream, integrating the “Research by Listening” program (interviews and real-time recording here). Inspired by the contacts made and experiences lived, the students’ work may be integrated into future PES_CE events.

This workshop aims to explore the territory of the Alpes de Haute Provence and the daily life of its inhabitants and their way of life in the mountains. Relationships with local communities, shepherds, farmers, workers, craftsmen, and mobile inhabitants, visits to various locations, experiences with all senses… everything is worked out in harmony with the environment. Special attention is given to seemingly contradictory notions of local versus global, rural versus urban, and also to displacements in the territory. From the living to the geological, from gardening to the wild nature, from home to pasture, shepherds and other residents guide our steps. Connections with the city and tourism, as well as any other interaction, are considered artistic material. There is a meeting with artists exploring shepherding and transhumance – Draille and Beyond the Country – Till Roeskens and Elsa Noyons. Visits to the Maison Musée Alexandra David-Neel, CAIRN (Center for Informal Artistic Research on Nature), and the Gassendi Museum (works by A. Goldsworthy, R. Nonas, Paul-Armand Gette, herman de vries, among others).

Teachers: Carlos Casteleira (ESAAIX, LSV, photography), Peter Sinclair (ESAAIX, LSV, sound), and Cédric Parizot (IREMAM, CNRS, AMU, anthropology).

Guests: Françoise Putz (La Vallée du Bès association), Roger Isoard (former mayor of Auzet and naturalist), Michel Simon (history), Jean Luc Bourel (sound landscape – Fontaine de l’Ours, Music and Environment), Charle Garcin (CAIRN – Centre d’Art de Digne), Gabriel Carnévalé (toponymy), and Sylvie and Yannick (Auzet bar).

The results of this workshop will be showcased during the second edition of Campagne Première (art and rurality) in September 2024 in Arles.