Exhibition presented in partnership with the service d'animation, de prévention et d'accompagnement des Landes (SAPAL).
More than 30 years of mining have created a singular relief whose Arjuzanx site preserves the memory. EDF undertook the conversion of the site with the desire to give it back to nature while participating in local economic development. Since the acquisition of the site by the Landes Department in 2002, the Syndicat mixte de gestion des milieux naturelles has accompanied its metamorphosis, which has become a showcase of biodiversity where rare and wonderful species live, including cranes.
The transformation of the landscape is now visible. The gaping holes of the excavations have become huge lakes with crystal clear waters. This ecological wealth is recognized by the classification of 2,205 hectares in the National Nature Reserve in 2022, becoming by its size the first nature reserve of the Landes.
Past and present meet around photography. Fauna and flora interact with the machines and fuel of the last century. Little time passed between these two periods and at first glance almost everything seems to have changed. But some traces give us hints of a bygone era.