nathan
cilona
info
200 plan libre : anatomy of an architectural journal
plan libre 200 : neither building nor demolishing
plan libre 198 : happy medieval time
plan libre 197 : tinies
plan libre 196 : roundabouts
plan libre 195 : disappointment of the form
new fictions for architecture
architecture’s photogenicity at the instagram era
altered memory of space
[coll.] synopsis
juliette picherit, portfolio
atelier d’architecture david huet
places
faces
jars
cover — general idea
vision — vincent de boer
poster — mete kutlu
portfolio — mbl architectes
investigation — clovis maillet
conversation — matali crasset
project — martine robert
critic — patrick boucheron
plan libre 198
Happy Medieval Time
"I am not a mule, you old hag", protests Jacquouille La Fripouille, defending his honor against the dentist Jean-Pierre Goulard, who is disdainfully judging his teeth. 01
The Middle Ages could say the same to refute the way it is sometimes regarded. When things regress, when progress seems hindered, some say when things are not going well: it's the return of the Middle Ages. Wars, the influence of the Church, and traces of epidemics intensify during this period of 1000 years. Let’s here examine its joyful vitality. Accompanied by the interpretation of historians, let's exaggerate the positive aspects. With the enthusiasm of artists, let's set aside the dark side.
Attentive to the tone and subjects of Patrick Boucheron's lectures, let's consider some medieval experiments. The aim is not to fetishize the past, but rather a way to "shed light on an uncertain present." 02 Here, the historian introduces the dynamics of Italian regions organized in archipelagos of cities, rather than centralized in one state. Power is divided into strata. The communal experience is an unprecedented mode of governance. In cities or in fraternities, decisions are made collectively: "No one can govern from afar." 03 Returning to pre-capitalist times allows us to grasp the specificities of an economy of subsistence rather than speculation.
In the Pyrenees, the small Romanesque basilica of Saint-Just de Valcabrère, built with the remains of a Roman villa, already bears witness to the reuse of local resources and a culture of frugality.
Through a reverse history, Clovis Maillet 04 demonstrates that gender is considered a moral quality rather than a biological one. Queer theorists project into this period the beginnings of emancipation, a possible fluidity of identities.
Before the invention of perspective, representations were less rational but increased the imagination and fictional power of images. Reconsidering them informs us about conviviality devices: from the round table to intergenerational beds; ways of cohabiting: animals populate the domestic environment. Tapestries, like large habitable fireplaces, are rudimentary yet effective climate control devices.
The anachronistic settings of video games immerse us in this jubilant past. They also constitute a "monumental information system" created by the most advanced modeling technologies.
The average age in the Middle Ages would be 31.3 years. 05 Life was shorter but full of inventions.
Benjamin Lafore
This is a personal translation, it may vary slightly from the original text.
01 . Jean-Marie Poiré (dir.), "Les Visiteurs" (The Visitors), 1993. In this French comedy, the Count of Montmirail and his faithful squire, Jacquouille la Fripouille, find themselves transported from the year of grace 1123 to the year 1992.
02 . Patrick Boucheron, "Corps cinglants et langages assemblés. L’espace public en puissance. Le visiteur" (Stinging Bodies and Assembled Languages. The Potential of Public Space. The Visitor), 2019. Patrick Boucheron, "Ce que peut l’histoire" (What History Can Do), Chair of History of Powers in Western Europe, 13th-16th Century, Inaugural Lecture at the Collège de France delivered on December 17, 2015.
03 . Georges Duby, "Des sociétés médiévales" (Medieval Societies), Inaugural Lecture at the Collège de France delivered on December 4, 1970.
04 . Clovis Maillet, "Les Genres Fluides, de Jeanne d’arc aux saintes trans" (Fluid Genders, from Joan of Arc to Trans Saints), 2020.
05 . It was not uncommon to live long, with the greatest danger being to survive childhood. International Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 34, Issue 6, December 2005, Pages 1435–1436.