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| THE OBSERVER
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Sílvia Calvó Armengol
Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Sustainability. Government of Andorra
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The Government of Andorra's commitment to preserving and improving the landscape is not a recent phenomenon. Back in October 2010, the Government of Andorra had signed the European Landscape Convention and, in late 2011, the General Council approved its ratification as a further step toward the creation of a national landscape policy. Subsequently, on 27 April 2011, the Government approved the National Andorran Landscape Strategy (ENPA) for the period 2011-2020, aligning with the principles and objectives of the European Landscape Convention.[+]
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| MOSAIC
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| Three days in Morille to reflect on the ruins and the wastelands |
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Held in Morille from 27 to 29 September, this Seminar focused on abandoned landscapes that have been devastated by the ferocity of urban development. The goal of the event was not to dwell on the abandoned landscapes (factories and mines, decaying ports, villages submerged under reservoirs, residential developments that have never been inhabited...) but to show restored landscapes and the life and art that grows on the edges of neglect. The Seminar brought together some of Europe's leading thinkers and specialists in landscape theory and practice, such as Gilles A. Tiberghien; Jean-Marc Besse and Raffaele Milani. The talks were recorded and the videos will be available for viewing in the near future. It is also planned to publish the proceedings.
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| The Savingscapes project holds its latest Learning Lab in Torroella de Montgrí |
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From 12 to 19 September, students from the University of Girona and other universities in Finland, Holland and Italy reflected on possible solutions for territorial adaptation and resilience in the face of climate change, using the landscape of the Baix Ter as a pilot territory. The week also featured field trips, lectures and interviews with the landscape's agents. This reflection also took into account the landscape perception data obtained from an innovative citizen science tool developed as part of the project and which will be one of its main outcomes. The week concluded with an open day entitled "Collaborative territorial adaptation to climate change: the case of El Baix Ter", organised on 19 September at the University of Girona, where the results were presented and debated between students and experts on the subject. Within the framework of the Erasmus+ Savingscapes project, which ends this year, the University of Girona's Geography Department organised the Learning Lab with the support of the Girona Provincial Council Department of the Environment and the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia.
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| The Third LALI Symposium 'Feeling and thinking the landscape. Proximity landscapes' is ready to go |
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The Landscape Observatory is a member of the scientific committee and a collaborator for the Third LALI Symposium "Feeling and Thinking the Landscape", organised by the Latin American Landscape Initiative and which will focus on proximity landscapes. It will be held in Manantiales (Uruguay) from 10 to 13 November 2022. Today, we appreciate proximity landscapes more than ever and identify closely with them. Given the climate emergency, the health contingency, the dramatic decline in biodiversity, galloping globalisation and the profound social crisis, there is a clear public awareness of the need for major changes in production, consumption and governance systems. The territories in which we live and from which we take our collective identity are becoming increasingly important. New meaning must be given to their values and new approaches taken to their management. In this new scenario, the spotlight is placed on proximity landscapes, those produced by local territorial gazes, mundane environments, the inhabitants' day-to-day experience and which comprise an asset for the future. The Symposium is an in-person event that requires prior registration and has more than 200 registered attendees. Further information, here.
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| Girona will host the Seminar 'Landscapes and virtual bodies in visual culture' |
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On November 25, the Seminar: Landscapes and virtual bodies in visual culture will be held in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Girona, where the poetics and uses of virtual landscapes will be discussed from different perspectives and artistic disciplines and its influence on the cultural imagination of the 21st century. What relationships emerge with space from the virtual landscapes of film and television fiction? What are the aesthetic categories that allow us to think about the virtual landscapes that proliferate with digital technology? What dialogue is established between the virtual landscapes of video games and other arts? What role will virtual landscapes play in the emergence of the metaverse? These will be some of the questions that national and international specialists will articulate throughout the Seminar, organized by the Cinema Origins Research Group (GROC) of the University of Girona with the collaboration of the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia.
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| The Rural Agenda of Catalonia enters a new phase |
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The participation process for Rural Agenda of Catalonia was rolled out during 2021, reaching more than 1,200 people and 350 organisations. The Landscape Observatory was invited to join the Steering Committee that is promoting the Agenda. This process concluded a Rural Agenda of Catalonia document which was approved in a Government Agreement by the Generalitat de Catalunya on 24 May. From this point onwards, the pace at which the Rural Agenda of Catalonia is deployed is determined by its Action Plan, which defines the actions to be carried out or which must be developed further by the Catalan government ministries to meet the challenges that have been identified, with responsibility shared with the territory's stakeholders. The Steering Committee's 35 members held a further meeting on 16 September. The Minister for Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Teresa Jordà, explained how it was planned to develop the Agenda's actions and asked the Steering Committee to take part actively in its implementation and follow-up going forward.
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| The Panoràmic festival has programmed 19 exhibitions and more than 50 cultural activities centred on the theme of the fourth landscape', which refers to artificial and digital environments |
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Panoràmic Festival of Cinema, Photography and more will be held from 20 October to 27 November simultaneously at Granollers and Barcelona. With the goal of providing a meeting point between static and moving images, with disciplines that include photography, cinema, video, installation and other contemporary visual practices, the festival will feature a diversity of exhibitions, projections, debates, workshops and lectures at different cultural venues in the two cities. This year's Panoràmic festival revolves around the theme of "the fourth landscape", which refers to artificial and digital landscapes. This concept will be the focus for discussion, questioning and reflection in all the artistic creations presented at the festival.
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| Fourth El Priorat Landscape Day |
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On Sunday, 30 October, the 4th El Priorat Landscape Day will be held at the Cartoixa d'Escaladei. This participative event is open to everyone and seeks to provide a space for exchange, reflection and annual debate, particularly among the different sector-specific forums, on what is being done in the region of El Priorat to manage its cultural landscape. The following events are scheduled for this year: an exchange between the Sector Forums and the presentation of the books Priorat, el gran allunyament (Priorat, the great distancing) and L’altre món rural (The other rural world), with a discussion table. To conclude the day's events, there will be an informal reception in the garden, with the "Habitar" exhibition.
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| PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
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| Islas del abandono. La vida en los paisajes posthumanos |
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Cla Flyn. Translation by Lucía Barahona. Madrid: Capitán Swing, 2022. ISBN: 978-84-125539-5-6.[Original title Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape].
This is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns, no-go areas, no man's lands..., and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim them. A route through these new ecosystems which, the author says, are "islands" of new life: nature has quickly stepped in to fill the void.
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| Actes du séminaire de coopération régionale transfrontalière. Vers un paysage de qualité pur quoi? Comment? |
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Caroline Guittet; Laurence Le Dû-Blayo (eds.). Observatoire de l’Environnement de Bretagne, 2022. Available here.
The publication contains the proceedings of the seminar bearing the same name, whose goal was to contribute to reflection on the methods, the conceptual frameworks and the results of a regional survey of the inhabitants' landscape icons. These results will be used to develop regional social indicators in Brittany. The director of the Observatory, Pere Sala i Martí, attended the seminar and collaborated in the publication.
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| The future of the European Landscape |
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Special issue of Landschap. Journal of landscape research. Vol. 39, núm. 2 (2022). Available here.
Special issue of the journal Landschap, devoted to the future of the European landscape within the framework of the European Landscape Convention, published after the symposium held on this subject in September 2021. The Landscape Observatory's Director, Pere Sala i Martí, has contributed an article on citizen awareness-raising about landscape.
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| Transition énergétique: vers des paysages désirables |
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Bertrand Folléa (dir.). Versailles-Marseille: Chaire Paysage et énergie de l’Ecole nationale supérieure du paysage. Available here.
The publication compiles 16 case studies that have led to the identification of "10 actions for the territory", providing a genuine methodological roadmap for energy transition agents: the goal, among others, is "to organise strong governance", "adapt planning scales to operations", "mobilise society" and "develop creativity" to prevent the standardisation of devices that would trivialise our energy landscapes.
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| Criteris ambientals en els projectes de Plantes Solars Fotovoltaiques |
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Departament d'Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural; EGAM Enginyeria, Estudis i Gestió Ambiental, 2022. Available here.
The Catalan Government has developed a guide aimed at promoters of photovoltaic solar power plants and engineering where criteria are established so that the impacts on the different environmental aspects are reduced with their construction and during the period of activity. The guide incorporates a section dedicated to landscape criteria so that these projects fit in correctly and improve their immediate environment.
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| Paisajes culturales agrarios en Castilla-La Mancha |
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María del Carmen Cañizares Ruiz; Ángel Raúl Pulpón (coords.). Cizur Menor: Editorial Aranzadi, 2022. ISBN: 978-84-1124-453-4.
The book shows and describes the agricultural-cultural landscapes of Castile-La Mancha. It focuses particularly on the landscapes that are associated with the crops comprising the Mediterranean trilogy, that is, the landscapes of wheat, wine and olives, not only explaining the economic activity's features but also the heritage resources that the activity has left as a legacy.
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| Note: This newsletter is an initiative of the Landscape Observatory. If you wish to subscribe and receive it by e-mail please click here. |
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