Patrimoines en résistance

The exhibition brings together an exceptional collection of graphic documents, contemporary artworks, and digital replicas of lost sites. Like a major reportage, the collection weaves a documented, visual, and sensitive narrative, where the perspectives of actors and witnesses, architects and artists intersect.

From Timbuktu to Odesa, from Bamiyan to Gaza, armed conflicts make heritage a prime target. In the face of such destruction, the "Patrimoines en résistance" exhibition explores acts of erasure, but also forms of resistance and repair that allow us to envision the future from the ruins. In 2012, the destruction of the Timbuktu mausoleums, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list, marked a historic turning point: for the first time, the deliberate annihilation of cultural monuments was qualified as a war crime by the International Criminal Court. An unprecedented international mobilisation then began to reconstruct the destroyed sites, relying on archaeological excavations and the memory of Malian artisans. While war has always led to destruction, the beginning of the 21st century reveals an intensification and systematisation of attacks on cultural and natural heritage. The exhibition highlights this contemporary reality and poses an essential question: how does war reveal what is irremediably lost, while also bringing forth acts of resistance that make future repair possible? Through a remarkable collection of maps, texts, models, photographs, videos, contemporary artworks, and digital replicas created by Iconem, the exhibition offers a journey in three sequences. Conceived as a major reportage, it weaves a documented, visual, and sensitive narrative, bringing together the perspectives of architects, artists, researchers, field actors, and witnesses. By distancing itself from the world's tumult, the exhibition offers visitors an essential moment of reflection in the face of the continuous flow of information. The three sequences of the exhibition:

Erase

The destruction of heritage today takes multiple forms: dynamiting emblematic sites, massive bombing of cities, deliberate abandonment of territories, looting and trafficking of cultural property. This erasure