Visit of the church and exhibition of photographs on the landscapes of the Landes and the outrages suffered by them
“Give me this hand, so I can read the lines. The thumb, see, is the Cantabrian coast, and to the index finger the Landes coast. Here, look, you have the Garonne, and the Adour. Between the two, nothing, except the moor, the deserted forest. On this nothing, I vaticine. There remains, know it, a people mocked by history. I will give him better: legend. She speaks, it is said, a language of brutes, inadmissible. I wanted to blackmail him. She was considered lost, dead, with her language, her customs, her faith. I bury her, but I bury her alive. Nothing. However, enough colors, that of fires, violent clouds, foul sins; and enough shadows, that of endless rains, unrepentant superstitions, stubborn secrets, for me to spoil the mortar of an exaggerated and absurd ceremonial, since he will disappear with a people, with his magnificent fatras, Beware: don’t be too sure."
«L'Enterrement à Sabres» (4° cover), by Bernard Manciet.
Landscape is the visible aspect of geographical space.
For these European Heritage Days, the Girondine association «Une pierre à l'édifice» in partnership with the Landaise cultural association «Mémoire Culture et Développement» offers visitors to come and discover in the church of Mons in Bélin-Belite an exhibition of photographs. The first part of this event will reveal a selection of surprising images that show the landscapes of the Landes de Gascogne in their great diversity. The second part will take us back to the violence and outrage that this region has suffered over the past 15 years. The fire and its ravages shown by a series of photographs taken by the firefighters, the storm Klauss which in the night of 23 to 24 January 2009 violently swept a large part of the Landes and finally the floods caused by the floods in spring 2020. The two associations responsible for the project have selected several photographers who offer visitors a strong reflection on the natural life of this forest. The purpose of this exhibition is to get the public to enter into a thoughtful reading of these images and to agree to take another look at what seems unacceptable.