At the intersection of four communes, three communes and two departments, the administrative territory of Bécherel does not correspond to the territory lived by its inhabitants. In the face of this administrative fragmentation, we began to dream of new borders that invite us to think about the notions of "local" and "live landscape". These new boundaries are designed to bring together six municipalities and gradually create a "country". The Country designates both a nation with its own political organization as a much smaller space of which one recognizes identity and belonging, a "native land" according to Eugen Weber in The End of the terroirs ((1984)).
In the context of the relocation of agriculture and the economy, the country is questioning the local scale of research and contemporary creation processes. We are interested in how new research-action agronomic methodologies can meet and inspire artistic creation modes and vice versa.
Combining ethnographic, agronomic and artistic methods, this research is born from the existing, questioning what constitutes a defined territory and territory. She works on how to view vernacular cultures and landscapes in creative processes. La Criée centre d'art contemporain is associated with this research as part of the Territoires EXTRA program and its artistic season, Lili, la rozell et le marimba.
Over several residencies since the summer of 2020, the École Parallèle imaginaire/Théâtre de Bécherel has brought together artists and researchers to study and bring to life this "Land." The project of a fictional hike is gradually taking shape: the aim is to create "imaginary borders" by forging a new path, thus rediscovering the etymological meaning of the word "walk": "a sign marking a border." The walk allows for the fictionalization of the past and future of this territory, and also for the creation of a community around a shared, situated history.
The artists and researchers of the « Pays » :
-- Gilles Amalvi, writer, poet, dance critic and sound creator."
-- Charline Ducottet, political scientist, study engineer with the Cultural Biodiversity and Participative Research team of INRA, research-action in agronomy.
-- Emma Flippon, agronomist engineer with the Cultural Biodiversity and Participative Research team at INRA Rennes.
-- Simon Gauchet, actor, director, scenographer and visual artist, artistic director of the Imaginary Parallel School."
-- Guillaume Lambert, actor, playwright and theatre director.
-- Léa Muller, landscape designer, Itinerance, landscape and urban planning workshop.
-- Johanna Rocard, visual artist and co-founder of the collective La Collective.
She has been conducting a rural experience since 2018. Conventioned by the Brittany region, the department of Ille-et-Vilaine and the municipality of Bécherel, the structure works to reinvent the municipal theatre of Bécherel (comune of 700 inhabitants located between Rennes and Saint-Malo)) by and for a geographical and human landscape. Accompanied by some 40 inhabitants of the municipality and the their questioning relates to what a "theatre" is located in a rural area.