Serge Antoine (1927 - 2006) was a senior French civil servant who played a particularly decisive role in the creation of administrative regions. Appointed to the DATAR in 1963, his work was marked by his interest in decentralisation and development on a regional scale. Serge Antoine was President of the ACCR between 1985 and 1989.
In a number of articles, Serge Antoine returned to the Cultural Centres project in order to present its ambitions and justify its relevance, with one question as a common thread: ‘Make these places the levers of tomorrow?
In ‘Des monuments qui parlent’ (1988), the enarque insisted on the popular desire to see monuments differently. Of course, they are evidence of history, remembrance and identity, but that is no longer enough. There is an emerging desire to see these old stones in a different light, by giving them an ‘extra soul’ and ‘a new destiny in the contemporary world’, without forgetting the past that they embody.
"And then there's the meeting of a monument with a new destiny, a new function.
The first milestones of the Centres culturels de rencontre have been laid: these are sites that bring heritage to life by reusing sites for a completely new function. This transformation is carried out without altering the heritage site itself; it is preserved as an exceptional envelope to accommodate completely new orientations. History and contemporary projects are brought together in a new way to make the site their own.
‘The adventure of the Cultural Centres is different: its principle is to bring a place back to life, echoing its history, by carrying out a wide range of cultural activities in that place, sometimes based on a single theme, and to involve, as far as possible, the regional population and the public of visitors, who are all too often said to be passive’.
Serge Antoine progressively defines the Cultural Centres by specifying the contours of these new functions, in this case with a cultural vocation. These original places are envisaged as open and welcoming spaces, offering an active role to the public. The human dimension is intrinsically linked to the RCCs: they play a useful role both for the public, in terms of their personal development and the free expression of their citizenship, and for the regions, in terms of promoting their development and attractiveness.
This definition is refined in ‘Les Lieux culturels, des ports francs dans un réseau européen pour l'action culturelle’.
(About CCRs) ‘Places (contemporary or old) with high-quality architecture, designed for encounters, reception and creation, and staffed by a team capable of investing in these functions on a relatively permanent basis, using technical and other communication tools’.
In addition to the issues at regional level, Serge Antoine emphasises the role that CCRs can play on an international, and more particularly European, scale. This interweaving of scales has become one of the specific characteristics of CCRs: ‘to play a resolute role, at the same time, in terms of territorial anchoring and international openness’. In his view, the Cultural Centres can ‘launch or relaunch cultural Europe’.
On the eve of its 50th anniversary, the ACCR wanted to look back at the highlights of its history, but the main objective is to reaffirm its long-standing commitments, while integrating them into the current context, which brings with it a host of new challenges. The ACCR is reflecting on and committing itself to bringing tomorrow's heritage to life. Serge Antoine was already thinking along these lines in 1989.
"The Cultural Centres are rooted in their area, their region, their country. They have their feet firmly planted in the ground and their heads in the future as it unfolds."