Vers une approche relationnelle de la culture européenne: le cas de ‘Mons 2015’ et des Capitales européennes de la culture

Abstract

On the basis of the European Capitals of culture, and with a focus on Mons 2015 , the purpose of this article is to distinguish three epistemological frames around the concept of European culture. In the first paradigm, the European culture is matched with an elitist idea of the culture, built on the model of the bourgeois culture of the nineteen century. With the second paradigm, the European culture is seen through the concept of Europeanization, which implies taking into account the cultural politics enacted by the European Union. The article focuses more on the third model, inspired by Bruno Latour and his theory of the actor-network. This model suggests to consider the agency of the cultural productions themselves, their power to lead cultural mediations between the national (or regional) level and the European one. To shed light on this perspective, the paper examines the film event of Mons 2015 , Lust for Life (Minnelli, 1956). This film acts like a relational object, connecting the cultural memory conveyed by Mons 2015 with the local memory of the inhabitants of the Mons area.