Route intended for the young public (6-11 years)
This tour intended for young people is offered as a way to raise awareness to the visit of the exhibition The Corsicans and the Great War.
How to cross the time gap and make this history accessible to children whose daily life is light years away from the trenches? These are their great-great-grandparents who may have lived through the Great War… How to evoke the horror without traumatizing? It is impossible to bring back to life the hell of the trenches as is.
Au cœur des tranchées takes up the challenge by treating this part of history from the angle of emotion and daily life. Centered on the human being and sensations, the tour, which proposes a series of subjective and sensory experiences, is a tool that allows us to make sense of these fragments, to distance ourselves from them and to question history.
The scenography develops a universe that mixes very realistic elements with a more symbolic evocation of the trenches. Borrowed from the military visual register, the graphic design in bold colors, evokes the ribbons of medals, the furniture recalls the boxes and canteens.
The dominant material is the gray cover. Sometimes folded, sometimes rolled, used to evoke sandbags, bandages or to form the walls of a more intimate space, it evokes the discomfort of war through its rough texture. Also a symbol of protection, it comforts and helps the soldier to fight against the cold.
ON THE DEPARTURE PLATFORM
As a preamble to the tour, a panoramic fresco of a departure pier serves as a gathering point for visitors. The setting sets the mood for the beginning of the campaign. No one imagines that he or she will “take” four years…
ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT
The image of the start of the campaign gives way to an environment reminiscent of the trenches.
Promiscuity, rats and soldiers frozen at the bottom of the cul-de-sac show that we are sinking into the conflict.
THE TRENCH OF EMOTIONS
Life in the trenches
A series of illustrations inspired by documents taken on the spot retraces the daily life of the soldier.
The sounds and smells of the trenches
Sounds and smells are diffused in this hose to make you feel the sensory environment of the soldiers confined in their trench.
The refuge of thoughts
A set of boxes representing the memories and thoughts allow to immerse oneself in the thoughts of a soldier. A way to show that the war affects the actors at the front, but also those who stayed at home.
THE ESSENTIALS
The barda
The children decipher the contents of a pack. Regulation accessories, intimate objects, even unusual ones, help to support physically and morally this extreme situation that is war.
The weight of the pack. A device allows to physically experience what these 35 kilos represent.
STORIES OF LIFE
Located in the heart of the exhibition, an audiovisual space broadcasts the stories of soldiers in comic strips.
THE MEMORY
Three touch screens allow visitors to consult the notebooks produced as part of the competition Les petits artistes de la mémoire, la grande guerre vue par les enfants, organized by the Office National des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre.
The children reinterpret the personal story of a poilu and become in their turn vectors of this memory.
READING CORNER
Albums, documentary books, comics, poetry books are available to learn more.
EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT
At the beginning of the tour, the young visitors are given a small bag containing an individual support, the little diary of the Great War. This booklet proposes an activity for each theme.
Throughout the tour, the child collects illustrated vignettes, “fragments” of experience, which, when cut out, commented on and pasted into the notebook, extend the experience of the visit.
Project manager : Ann Bilger-Depoorter, in charge of cultural mediation – Museum of Corsica.
Scenography : Kascen
Graphic design : Laurent Sick
