Lotville – Landscape of Desire
raumlaborberlin has been invited to develop the “10éme Parcours d´art contemporain en vallée du Lot” north of Toulouse in July 2015. The project “Lotville” will become the underlying narrative for the parcours – it is raumlabors attempt to reintroduce urban visioning into the world of arts and architecture. Lotville is a contemporary perspective on Europes countryside in relation to urbanity. Lotville will be an exhibition and a set of interventions in the landscape and villages along the river Lot.
Trailer for „LOTVILLE Landscape of Desire“ documentary
In the past 15 years raumlaborberlin has developed a big range of urban planning projects, installations and interventions for many European cities (and beyond). With Lotville we want to step into a new field – the relation between the contemporary landscape in Europe and the idea of urbanity.
In order to realise a work strongly rooted in the area raumlabor will move its headquarter, with up to 24 members, for 10 weeks into one of the most beautiful corners of Europe. La Maison des Arts George Pompidou is offering LES MAISONS DAURA, RÉSIDENCES INTERNATIONALES D’ARTISTES in Saint-Cirq Lapopie. The village was elected the favorite village for french people 2012. Andre Breton spent his summer holidays here and went butterfly hunting with Max Ernst.
The valley around Saint-Cirq Lapopie attracts thousands of tourists every summer. In winter and at night there are very few people left. But the valley is also place, where certain people move to stay. These are the people we want to meet. Our theory is that the living conditions here are so perfect, that sooner or later runaways from all over the world will start to settle here. What then? What could be a true living future for a place that seems to become an open air museum for country life?
At the end of our 10 weeks residency we want to present an utopia. A visionary plan based on an intense research on the valleys status quo, its needs and its potentials. We will look at people, villages, agriculture, history, economy, tourism, education, waste, water and possible future scenarios. We will develop a plan for an utopian city as a refuge for those whose lifestyles do not correspond with the city and who still won´t become farmers. Beyond a vision for some lucky few, we want to challenge the all to convenient dichotomization of rural and urban and open a provocative debate about the real future (realities and needs) of life outside the big cities.
