Something of Place: 140 Rules for Life

'Something of place: 140 rules for life' emerged from an artist residency undertaken in 2013 at Rauzet Priory, a restored 13th century chapel of the Grandmontine Order in the Charente region in South West France, on the edge of the forest of Horte.

Rauzet Priory inscribes in place the memory of humble devoted monks who lived their lives working for the common good and according to their Book of Rules, which apart from the space is the only trace they left behind. The chapel is no longer a lived in space but a historic place, occasional tourist destination and concert or wedding venue.

Most of us choose how we live our lives today and make up our own individual rules, usually as we go along. If ‘place’ has the ability to evoke memories to make the past come to life in the present as Casey believes, then people visiting it needed to be able to connect their own experiences with activities appropriate to its history.

The history of the monks Rules for Life led to this artistic enquiry, so during the residency, visitor participants were invited to write down rules they followed in their own day-to-day lives. This process enabled participants to respond to the space individually using their own lived experience and by doing so, their own private and personal narratives were brought into the empty space of the priory, so linking with the past through the present. I then placed each rule into individual test tubes, categorized them accordingly and presented them together in a museum exhibition box.

This paper reveals something of place, through the artists’ enquiry at Rauzet Priory. '140 rules for life' reveals immanent real-time experiences, evoking memories of lives once lived to a given set of rules, making the past come to life in the present.

140 rules for life will be available at the conference for delegates to interact with and contribute to.

Maureen Gamble, February 2016