A group of residents from Saint-Gilles have come together to commission an artwork that reimagines and strengthens the sense of belonging as a way of inhabiting a place in a spirit of shared humanity.
The municipality of Saint-Gilles lies along the route of the Camino de Santiago and benefits from a significant cultural heritage. With a marina that opens onto the Mediterranean Sea, it has historically been a crossroads of trade and intercultural exchange, shaped both by commercial activity and by the passage of pilgrims from across Europe. Today, however, 24% of its population live within an urban priority zone, spread across the neighbourhoods of Sabatot and the historic centre, separated by a road that has come to serve as a symbolic boundary. These two districts face considerable socio-economic challenges, characterised by fragmentation, weakened social cohesion, and widening geographical and cultural divides.
Faced with the erosion of community solidarity within the population of Saint-Gilles and the rise of inter-community tensions between the two neighbourhoods, a group of residents and local stakeholders active in the social and cultural sector came together at the beginning of 2023 to explore how they might act collectively. They turned to the Nouveaux commanditaires initiative, seeking to commission an artwork that would help restore a shared sense of belonging by shaping a new “cartography of the commons” around three key landmarks: the municipal community centre La Croisée, the Château d’Espeyran and the market. Their aim is for this commission to
focus on marking out this new “triangle of the commons”, in order to revive circulation and exchange, enriched from both sides. This dynamic could then give rise to a range of initiatives – such as festive, popular events that can be co-created collectively throughout the year.