Heritage reserves to preserve and exhibit the treasures of La Courneuve

La Courneuve now has a tailor-made setting to welcome, conserve and exhibit its historical and artistic treasures: its heritage reserves officially inaugurated on September 20 and which the general public was able to discover for the first time on the occasion of the European Days heritage. Located in the basement of the Jean-Houdremont Cultural Center (Avenue du Général-Leclerc), these reserves bring together the archaeological, ethnographic (here linked to market gardening and agriculture) and contemporary art collections of the area.

There we find sculptures, paintings, tapestries, mosaics, drawings, prints and photographs, acquired or collected by the City since the 1960s. Some of the works represent the territory, such as the pen drawings of Boris Taslitzky, those of Mireille Miailhe or the paintings of Jack Ottaviano. The site also houses the City’s agricultural collections, bringing together no less than 2,200 objects recounting its market gardening past and daily life at the beginning of the 20th century.^e century in the Plaine des Vertus (agricultural territory stretching from Bobigny to Saint-Denis) as well as artifacts exhumed during archaeological excavations carried out between 1973 (with the discovery of Merovingian sarcophagi under the Saint-Lucien church) and the end of the 1990s .

Testimonies of the past that the public can discover and admire during guided tours (for small groups only) organized once a month by the Department of Cultural Affairs. “ Threatened by unsuitable conservation conditions, made inaccessible over the years, this heritage now benefits from permanent visitable reserves », rejoices the commune. Its museum reserves are structured around two spaces. One is dedicated to the City’s collections of works of art where suitable furniture makes it possible to handle, consult and maintain the works, particularly large formats. previously stored roughly but inaccessible “. The other houses the agricultural collections. And, here too, suitable storage furniture provides access to all the pieces of the collections and protects them from dust.

The inauguration of these heritage reserves marks the culmination of a project lasting several years led by the City with the support of the National Heritage Institute, the Department, the Region, the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, the Museum departmental of Seine-et-Marne, and the Plaine Commune territory. If the work of sorting, organizing and processing the collections began in January 2019, “ the heritage reserves project originated in 2012 from the project to requalify an industrial wasteland, the Hydromanutention factory, which temporarily housed the City’s agricultural and archaeological collections », recalls the municipality. Its new heritage reserves are part of the policy in favor of the conservation and enhancement of the territory’s heritage that it has supported since the 1980s. Now preserved and accessible to the public, these collections will help transform views of this often little-known Courneuvian territory. », Hopes the City.