Created by Rudy Ricciotti the project was the winner of the competition held in 2005 together with the office Passelac & Roques Architectes. The building is a hard, opaque piece, which is half buried in the camp's ground, only offering views from the inside to the sky from a interior courtyard. The monument will host termporary and permanent exhibitions and will serve as research and learning space.
A witness to some of the twentieth century’s darkest moments – the Spanish Civil War, World War II, the Algerian War of Independence – the Camp de Rivesaltes occupies a unique and important place in French history. A former military camp (Camp Joffre), a camp for Spanish refugees, the largest internment camp in Southern France in 1941 and 1942, an internment camp for German prisoners of war and collaborators, and the primary relocation centre for Harkis and their families. Its history is unique.
In order to tell this story, a memorial designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti and the office Passelac & Roques, opened its doors on 16 October 2015. Built on the former block F of the camp, in the middle of the existing buildings, the memorial, measuring 4,000 sqm, provides an authoritative account of the history of the forced displacement and subjugation of populations. It is also a place where visitors may cultivate the memory of all those who once passed through its doors.
The project of the Mémorial du Camp de Rivesaltes has a long history, punctuated rather unsurprisingly by the vagaries of politics, given that history, politics and memory are so closely intertwined. Three individuals played a decisive role in the origin of the project: Claude Delmas and Claude Vauchez, who were instrumental in getting the local authorities on board with the project, and Serge Klarsfeld who worked on a national level. It all began in the mid 1993, with the publication of the Journal de Rivesaltes 1941-1942 (Diary of Rivesaltes), written by Friedel Bohny-Reiter, a nurse working with a Swiss relief organization for children. In 1994, a monument was erected in memory of Jews deported from the Camp de Rivesaltes to Auschwitz, with another monument being erected in December 1995 in honour of the Harkis. This was followed by another commemorative monument in 1999, in homage to the Spanish Republicans.
“We cannot remain detached from the history of the Camp Joffre through a discourse that is indifferent to the human drama that unfolded on this very site,”
Rudy Ricciotti
The memorial is silent and oppressive: it lies in the earth, squarely facing block F, with a calm and silent determination, a monolith of ochre-coloured concrete, untouchable, angled towards the sky. At once buried in, and emerging from the earth, the memorial appears on the surface of the natural landscape as one enters the camp, and stretches to the eastern extremity of the former meeting place, to a height that is level with the roofs of the existing buildings.
This arrangement or co-visibility doesn’t hinder a reading of the features of block F. The effects of erosion over time are noticeable in some of the buildings, thereby marking erasure and absence, questioning the visitor regarding memory or oblivion. The site has been reclaimed by a tenacious and spontaneous vegetation.
The project has altered none of this. If anything, it has been showcased, forming a natural backdrop to an exterior pathway where visitors can stroll freely. An environment propitious to meditation and serenity… To the west of the memorial, some of the buildings have been rebuilt, recreating the serial and alienating spatiality of the camp. Here, there is an absence of vegetation, resulting in a flat, arid landscape, unmarked by shadows, and buffeted by the wind. From the carpark, situated at the outer south-west corner of the block, the visitor can enjoy panoramic views of the camp.