4 | 5 . Rivesaltes Camp Memorial . © KevinDolmaire
4 remarkable integration : it is mimetic . It follows the existing traces of history and the structure of the space . It has a very beautiful shape . This project is indisputable in its respect for the horizontal nature of the site . It is in keeping with the site thanks to its remarkable aesthetics . It is a reflection of the site , which makes it an appropriate project .” 4 .
Because of its imposing size ( 230 metres long and 20 metres wide ), its discrete colour that mimics the ground , and the way it is buried into the ground , the building provokes a unique effect in visitors ( more than 50,000 in 2019 ). In fact , it is the first object of cultural mediation on the site . The aim is not just to help to remember , but to become a tool to raise political awareness , around a sensitive project based on memory and exile , built and experienced with a scientific , cultural and artistic programme that seeks to go beyond the only known history of the place , now rewritten in the permanent exhibition that covers 1,000m 2 .
It must be a tool that creates a link with the territory from a cross-border perspective , and can
4 Archives from the MCR .
contribute to regional planning by pooling synergies , on both sides of the border .
The concept of an MCR as the humanist flip side of the place of ostracism that the camp was is at the heart of the building ’ s current project , running from 2022 to 2027 . As a way of learning from our mistakes as a country , the MCR must turn the camp ' s excluding structure into an integrating one . The fact that it opened in the year that France was hit by the jihadist attacks of January and 13 November makes sense in terms of its duty to prevent radical thinking – judicial stakeholders such as the Protection judiciaire de la jeunesse [ Youth Protection Office ] have been visiting with increasing numbers of clients in recent years .
2015 , when it opened , was also the year of the Syrian refugee crisis , transformed into moral panic by the far right . On the first day of lectures at the site , in 2007 , one of the authors of this article was challenged by a member of the audience on the inhumanity of people in 1939 . In response , he asked what he would think if 475,000 refugees once again asked to return to France , as they had in February 1939 . This person seemed to find such a remark
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Observing Memories Issue 7