Residents of the Lot Valley came together to develop a project focused on their relationship with the river and on forging new connections with it.

Located in the valley of the Lot, a river that connects five departments (Lozère, Aveyron, Cantal, Lot, and Lot-et-Garonne) and three regions (Occitanie, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), the project stems from months of reflection and action by local residents. They see the river not merely as a resource, but as a living presence with which new alliances and ways of relating can be imagined and nurtured.

These residents have come together for sessions of mutual discovery as part of a project led by Le Belvédère association, which aims to explore, share and reflect on the ways people relate to their environment. They hope an artist can imagine a space—in any form—for experimentation and research, for cultivating friendship with the Lot Valley, generating knowledge, actions, stories and images. The commission seeks to celebrate the distinctiveness of contemporary rural life, its imaginations, cultural values and strengths, in the face of a destructive global context, from which the Lot Valley is not exempt.