L'utile et l'agréable. La question de l'esthétique dans l'enquête d'architecture rurale du musée national des Arts et Traditions Populaires (1943-1947)

In: Etudes rurales: anthropologie, économie, géographie, histoire, sociologie ; ER, Band 117, Heft 1, S. 39-72

Abstract

The useful and the pleasant : the question of aesthetics in the survey of rural architecture conducted by the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires (1943-1947)

A policy for protecting rural architecture and landscapes developed out of a survey conducted by Georges-Henri Rivière for the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires from 1943 to 1947. Besides soliciting monographs, this survey sought to discern the decorative elements and distinguish the functional from the aesthetic. Using cases observed in the Margeride and Aubrac areas of France, this article examines this survey's results, the shortcomings of the grid used for analysis, and the position as an expert that was filled by those who conducted the survey. This survey's problems are explained by going back to Riviere's comments both on the nostalgia for a golden age and on the functionalist theories dominant at that time. A more open approach to aesthetic analysis is proposed that calls for taking into account the observer's subjectivity and knowledge of local architectural systems. Thus can be understood the relative coherence of value systems and of the practices of an agricultural, or rural, way of life, even in contemporary forms.