ARN Vol.5

Nelly Monnier and Eric Tabuchi continue their dizzying ambition to create a contemporary representation of France. In an approach that is as subjective as it is organised, they pay no more attention to what is beautiful than to what is ugly, making us constantly question the existence of a boundary between these two notions and the relevance of the class judgements that underlie them. Natural landscapes, traditional buildings, vernacular or personal initiatives, dwellings, shops – there is often humour, sometimes poetry, in both the builders and the observers. The banal and the exceptional combine to express the identity of these natural regions. It may be marked or blurred, like the geographical boundaries of these regions whose lines have been blurred by administrative modernity, but it is there for those who want to find it, soaked in rock, sheet metal, turf and typography.

The Atlas des Régions Naturelles Vol.5 contains 16 chapters, 12 natural regions: Auxois, Basse Marche, Bessin, Bocage bourbonnais, Champagne pouilleuse, Lavedan, Marais Breton, Monts Dore, Pilat, Porhoët, Segréen, Vermandois; 4 thematic sections: 2000, Portails et clôtures, Vingt-six stations abandonnées… and the Orient-Express itinerary.