Puy du Fou is a French Theme Park that has changed a small unknown rural town into a world famous venue of historical and cultural experience. Such transition was possible thanks to the successful management of the Park that has become the foundation ...
Puy du Fou is a French Theme Park that has changed a small unknown rural town into a world famous venue of historical and cultural experience. Such transition was possible thanks to the successful management of the Park that has become the foundation of region’s historical resources. The magnificent cultural and industrial achievements delivered by Puy du Fou received much attention from the theme parks and leisure related industry recognized as an outstanding case on innovative management of cultural and recreational business.
In addition to Puy du Fou’s cultural and industrial accomplishments, the study concentrates on the fact that the historical theme park of Puy du Fou is an evident illustration of actualizing the intangible cultural heritage of memories into a tangible cultural content in the form of performing arts. Centering on the outdoor epic theater Cinéscenie, one of the Puy du Fou’s main attractions, the study explores the background and process of how the features of memory heritage embedded within are engaged as a source and transcended into a cultural project while discussing the significance and implications discovered in the course.
Puy du Fou’s successful establishment of a cultural industry also encompasses the will and action of Vendéen(Vendée residents) to remember and commemorate their own traumatic history as the victim of tragic massacre that occurred amidst the c haos of a civil war(War of Vendée) during the French Revolution.
Chapter 1 examines the grounds for the study, listing and explaining previous researches on the subject.
Chapter 2 scrutinizes how the conventional concept of cultural heritage is expanded through the notion of ‘Le lieu de mémoire(the venue for memories)’ and at the same time explores how it structures and reorganizes identity of the region. To this end, the author makes full use of ‘Les lieux de mémoire’, a concept coined by Pierre Nora. Because memory is both individual and collective, the tragic identity of the region is presented in the form of one collective memory and the study looks into what are the issues and potentials they embrace simultaneously.
Chapter 3 looks into the specific details of how the cultural heritage of memories in the region is realized into a cultural content. All data related to the cultural industry of Puy du Fou including its management, organization, budget and financial performances were examined. Also, the study specifically focuses on Grand Parc, a successful extension of the outdoor night-time spectacle Cinéscenie, as to what methods it has adapted to fortify its role as tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the region despite its numerous short comings.
Chapter 4 reviews the specifics of how Vendée, a town that was heavily damaged during the French Revolution elevates its negative history into a positive domain. This chapter is where you will find the author’s argument with utmost intensity. Starting from the conventional categorization of history and memory, the chapter reviews the process of collective memory in Vendée region definitizing into a memory and transformed into a historical and cultural asset. Moreover, the study not only views Puy du Fou from the perspective of cultural contents but links it to the discourse of general history to unearth the subject’s conventional significance in the history of France.
The task of understanding and comprehending the essence of Puy du Fou Theme Park suggests much to the local cultural contents industries in Korea that are putting in much effort to make use of the historical heritage, a trending project lead by local governments as a means of regional development. The case of Puy du Fou is not simply confined to a method of raising revenue or a tactic to develop tourism industry. It provides an opportunity to reconsider what are the historical and cultural assets that are unique to the region and different from any other. It should be noted in this instance of Puy du Fou that until Cinéscenie gained success as a cultural product representing the region, the ‘memory of local community’ stemming from the tragic history of the past was conserved much similar to a traditional heritage which was then inherited from generation to generation to become inherent. Cultural activities of Puy du Fou utilizing such heritage of memories nourished autonomous and voluntary cultural initiatives on the local community level. Domestically it also played a key role in resolving ideological conflicts of the country that was once divided between the Republicans and the Royalists. As a result it has created the effect of exalting the tragic event of the past in a positive form.
The case study of Puy du Fou Theme Park project casts a fundamental question on the origin of a local community’s history and culture. At the same time it is essential in a sense that the study presents in a narrative fashion how the experience and memory forming our present can be transformed into a history that is beyond the realm of individuals.
As a conclusion, Puy du Fou implies even the painful memory of the past in human life can induce reconciliation in the long run through such projects involving culture and arts. Contemplation on life cannot be come to a halt no matter how torturous that life is. In this context, Puy du Fou is more than an industry yielding economic value using historical assets. It exhibits in a definite and concrete way the comprehensive effect life, history, culture and arts have on people’s every day lives.
Key Words: Vendée, Puy du Fou, Cinéscenie, Grand Parc, Theme park, Les Lieux de Mémoire, Pierre Nora, Collective Memory, Cultural Heritage of Memory, Local Culture, Cultural identity, Cultural contents, Performing Arts Content.