July 5th to 8th 2004
Castle of Aigle

From the historical notion to the physical reality and via epistemology, the landscape never stops evolving, to the extent that it almost becomes automatic to talk about the subject in plural. We shall thus be interested and concerned about plural landscapes. Whether it is a question of making precise the origin of a consciousness of landscapes or the tools that serve it, to try to read in the mechanical transformations the relationship between a society and its environment or either to define the new usages promoted by the proliferation of images, the common landmarks get confused and often all that is left is myth or, at best, a symbolic space as reference point. The mountain, in this regard, is the space where the various aspirations of man, contemplative or industrious, meet and fight. It is the place where theories and concepts are elaborated and modified. The mountain is at the origin of words and images which make more precise the notion of landscape, but which mountain are we talking about?

In order to answer this question, four days of conferences and debates will take place.