A large screen and 15 tablets with which you can access nearly 3,000 international works for free... Welcome to the MicroFolie of La Chapelle-Saint-Luc, a town on the outskirts of Troyes: usual venue for shows and concerts, exhibitions or conferences, the Espace Didier Bienaime has been transformed into a digital museum (www.espacedidierbienaime.fr).
Supported by the Ministry of Culture and La Villette, the MicroFolie of La Chapelle-Saint-Luc is inspired by the Folies, these red buildings that can be found in the Parc de la Villette in Paris.
“They aim to bring culture to the public, who do not necessarily have the financial or physical means to travel to the museum,” recalls Jade Levy, cultural mediator.
Read alsoThe Louvre scares you a little, try the digital museum!
“We now have access here to collections from the Louvre, the Quai Branly museum, fairly classic French collections, but also to others from Mexico or Quebec and even to regional collections, notably this year that of the Camille- Claudel de Nogent-sur-Seine,” specifies the young woman.
Everyone can come and pick at their convenience, first guided by the mediator, then independently.
A "like" on a work during a film allows you to zoom in and have access to all the information on a sculpture, a painting... Not forgetting the two virtual reality headsets.
“We have paintings by the Italian painter Caravaggio where you really find yourself immersed,” explains Jade.
We have a reconstruction of the fall of Pompeii as if we were there, with the volcano exploding and the population fleeing.
Or a reconstruction of Notre Dame de Paris during the French Revolution, which can be linked to the ongoing reconstruction of the cathedral and the stained glass windows.
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“Just because we don't know anything about it doesn't mean we can't love culture”
Jade Levy, cultural mediator
Enough to break the elitist image that sticks to museums thanks to interactivity, but also to the projects that Jade intends to carry out through investigation games, playful or dramatized discoveries, relying on the performance hall nearby.
“It’s not because we don’t know anything about it or don’t go to museums that we can’t love culture,” she emphasizes.
Already present in five other sectors of Aube and on 475 sites across France and abroad, the MicroFolie concept has proven itself, and demonstrates, in the midst of a debate on the subject, that the use of screens can be also very beneficial to good use.
“The key is to find the balance between digital technology, social connections and outings,” explains Leïla Vessière, Grand Est operational manager at La Villette.
“We travel there!
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Sometimes designed to be itinerant depending on the territory, the system will remain in place here in the Espace Didier Bienaimer, while evolving regularly to make visitors want to come back.
“With the music school, right next door, we will be able to create themes on musical instruments for the students,” envisions Claude Fontugne, the director of the premises.
“Last year, there was a preview in the MicroFolies of a series on French rap, screenings and one-off events which can stick to the news of the room, but also to the taste of the population, in particular young people from priority neighborhoods.
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Hans, 12, is already enjoying the experience.
“On the big screen, there are images that scroll.
There is a little heart on the tablet.
If we like the image, we press on it and we can have details on the image or play a little game on it.
For example, here I am doing a puzzle on the Coudenberg Palace (Brussels).
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It almost seems like a teenager.
“It’s good because at least, to discover a painting or a castle, you don’t need to travel… you travel there!”
» Among the older visitors, Françoise is amazed.
“I find it fabulous to have access to all this international culture.”
Commissioning this La Chapelle-Saint-Luc Micro-Folie cost 68,000 euros, 80% covered by the State, the rest by the municipality.
“We are one of the poorest cities in France,” notes Marie-Françoise Le Borgne-Godard, municipal councilor responsible for culture.
“Many people do not allow themselves to enter the cultural center because they think that culture is not for them.
We try to show them, through another means, that they have every right to it.
» Coming from a modest background himself, Mayor Olivier Girardin was seduced by a system which should make the population want to learn, while enjoying it and without spending a cent.
He sums it up like this: “Culture is the means of understanding and accessing things that are not oneself.”