Grensschap Albertkanaal. A gaze protecting landscape values and

creating cross border unity

Pieter Caljé

Heritage Care Through Active CitizenshipMechelen

March 23th, 2009

The place: the border area west of Maastricht

The cultural values of the landscape

• Oldest historical landscape Netherlands and Flanders

• Archeology: first traces proto-human activity (300.000 B.P.)

• First agricultural activities (5400 B.C.)

• Key military activities related to the Dutch Revolt and later up to WW II and the Cold War

• Historical values linked to the landscape as we see it today

The project Grensschap

• Aim: to show and protect the cultural values of the landscape

• Threats:– massive development

activities (industry, house building, clay-explotation, railroads, canal, motorways)

– lack of control in planning because of the border

The Grensschap: the group

• some 15-20 citizens of both sides of the border• active since 2003• essential: unstructured as organization, just

monthly meetings, field trips, a newsletter and the will to accomplish something

• Unique: official participation civil servants three municipalities

• Bottom-up public-private partnership

The Cultural Biography of the landscape

• The concept -> anthropology (Kopytoff0• Link structure actual landscape – historical

events– Relief -> military operations– Loam -> continuity of agriculture– Brooks -> silex-gathering Neanderthalers

• Landscape evokes stories - the narrative landscape

• Experience historical sensation

The project

• Evoke historical meaning landscape on the spot – let the landscape tell its own stories

• Funding: Three municipalities, two provinces, EU -> € 700.000

• Three aims– Creating a trans-border unity– Use the concept of the cultural biography of the

landscape– Turn the defenseless landscape into something

defensible by letting it speak for itself

The artist’s conception

• Artist Hans Lemmen -> 14 landmarks spread over three municipalities and two countries

• Three unifying elements: megalith, border pole with information and three elms

• Creating a view, a informed gaze on the historical landscape on a agreeable spot

Dousberg – Willem of Orange and Alva in 1568

Lanakerveld – the oldest agricultural area in the Netherlands

Sieberg – scene of a major battle in 1747

The result

• Lafelt (Belgium): a protected landscape

• Zouwdal studies (Netherlands): recognition of landscape value in future development planning

Trans border effects

• Creation of a lasting trans-border network– New projects: – Trans-border c-2-c agriculture– Trans-border educational projects– Trans-border political cooperation

• Enhancing the trans-border conscience– Visiting the 14 landmarks create a feeling of

unity across the border– Our borderpoles soften up the border

Civil Society and Public Frameworks

• Project crosses all kind of political borders– Belgium-Dutch border– Bureaucratic borders (culture, nature, economics)– Hierarchy within bureaucracy (economy before nature

and culture)

• Thesis: – Top down approach reproduces those borders and

stifles innovations– Bottom up approach transgresses those borders and

enables innovations