Parc du Doubs
2018-2019Parc naturel du Doubs – in this title a word resonates and evokes longings and visions: nature, a boundless term with myriad meanings and its associations, ranging from proximity to paradise via wilderness to anxiety about the threatening loss of everything natural. Then there is also the word park – which once designated an area artificially arranged, planted and cared for according to aesthetic ideas. The extent of our civilizational activities in the centuries since the Baroque era and its parks, can be easily judged by the fact that today the word is also used in reverse, s it were, namely, to designate a near-natural area distinct from our largely culturally-marked surroundings. But then what is this Parc naturel du Doubs? The picture-essay examines the centuries-old cultural landscape of the Swiss Jura Mountain region, raising questions about the correspondence between railways and roads, settlements, farms or industrial sites and our ideas of an idealized, near-natural landscape. The project was carried out in the framework of a residence programme of the Musée des beaux-arts le Locle and the Parc naturel du Doubs.