Mathieu Deldicque

How can homes built centuries ago still resonate with us in the modern day? Witnesses to complex histories, seemingly forgotten customs, and all-but-faded societies, they have nevertheless retained some links, however tenuous, with our current preoccupations and history. In this era of immediacy, immateriality, doubts, and reassessments, access to these monuments may be more necessary than ever before. But we must rethink the approaches and discussions that we bring to them. 

The purpose of this residency is for me to shift the inherently Eurocentric view that I bring to the historic site restoration (my everyday job) in an effort to comprehend the faraway lands of the East Coast and their tumultuous, diverse history. 

In the north, whether in Boston, Newport or along the Hudson River, the American Gilded Age once saw the emergence of considerable fortunes that translated new power into stone. Most of its resulting abodes are now nothing more than an echo of bygone grandeur. However, television series on digital streaming platforms have placed them back in the spotlight, starting a new area in building restoration that I intend to explore. In the south, meanwhile, from Charleston to New Orleans, I will attempt to unravel a rather longer, more painful history. By researching the reclamation of former plantations and residences of the former slave-owning elite, I will study contrasting memories, and the way site tours can, and must, incorporate a more nuanced discourse.  

A core part of my project will involve meeting with the curators, directors, and managers of these sites, as well as researchers interested in the issues that they raise. Through investigation and comparison, along with sharing of experiences, best practices, and original initiatives, I will enhance my personal professional practice and hopefully reap the benefits for all at large.  

My residency will take the form of a geographical, temporal, and thematic diptych. Various histories are woven into the fabric of these residences, all along the American East Coast. It is these histories that will allow me to develop a new range of discourses on the topic, as well as restoration methods. 

The first part of my journey will be spent in South Carolina and in Louisiana, around Charleston and New Orleans. Scarred by slavery and the Civil War, these states offers a wealth of heritage sites imbued with contrasting memories that have lasted through the centuries. The discourse surrounding the visitation and preservation of slave plantations (the Laura Plantation, the Whitney Plantation, etc.) will be a key component of this research trip in and around New Orleans. In Charleston, I will study the region’s rich colonial and post-colonial past (the William Aiken House, the Nathaniel Russel House, but also Drayton Hall and the Biltmore Estate), through the lens of its most significant historic residences. 

The latter portion of my trip will take me to the northeastern coast, starting with Newport. Here, Gilded Age tycoons once competed with each other in architectural boldness, recording their incomparable wealth in stone. Following this unique concentrate in Newport (The Breakers, The Elms, Marble House, Château-sur-Mer), I will travel down the Hudson Valley. In this area, not far from New York city, the annals have left behind numerous mansions that mark out the history of the region and its residents.  

These vastly different areas of study contain contrasting histories that attest to opposing, yet concurrent, sociologies. As I journey across them, I will seek to analyze and compare the various scientific projects undertaken, perspectives adopted, and contemporary outreach efforts imagined in each region.