Paléficat

At 6:45pm today — Paléficat by Benoit Bories.

This short sound piece explores the transformation of a landscape in Toulouse’s Paléficat district. As urban densification threatens to replace market gardens with housing, the piece reflects on the uncertain future of this agricultural area, caught between nature and development.

“Paleficat” tells the story of the uncertain future of a piece of land. The certainty of the transformation of a landscape whose new face almost no-one knows yet. Probably the disappearance of the last traces of the market garden belt in the Toulouse metropolitan area. In this “agricultural pocket”, irrigated by the river Hers, but already surrounded by buildings, bordered by the ring road and bled by the Boulevard Ubrain Nord (BUN), there are plans for urban densification. Housing instead of fields. And the city filling in the gaps so that new residents can come and live here, in the Paléficat district. As part of a larger observatory project, Paléficat captures the sounds of a place on the brink of change.