Why CATLAN?
An evolving essay of explanation
Elsewhere, it is expressed that:
“CATLAN derives from an intellectual and emotional encounter with a specific place known by many as the País Català (Catalan Countries, or Le Pays Catalan), specifically the Département des Pyrénées-Orientales. Otherwise put, a place of thoughts emerged and enveloped us”.
Here then, is an attempt to consciously deconstruct this envelopment.
Returning to the brief origin of CATALN as “a place of thoughts”, I read this as one sited in a specific space, or physical geography, then overlaid with constructions that promote, and continue to promote thought — the focus of which is the positive, alternative opportunities inspired by this context.
Reflective thinking has long proposed that metaphysical characteristics of a context matter for the value of such experience. A prominent theme in the visual art and written literature has been the benefits of naturogenic landscape: that lesser or little impacted by the active manipulation of “the human species”. These narratives have connected arcadian environments to the divine but also earthly concerns of learning and development.
Heavenly paradise and the garden of Eden (above) have been represented as landscapes free of human impact. Thomas Cole’s critique of The Course of Empire (1833–1836) observes the loss of naturogenic context with the rise and fall of human influence; Cole notes that natural process takes back influence when human practices self-destruct.
Through the conflation of knowledge with the positive, pure and divine, others have seen a naturalistic context as supportive of learning. Although titling his exploration as about the merits of Solitude or the Effect of Occasional Retirement, Zimmerman speaks of the value found in rural and naturogenic environments for the mind, imagination and the heart.
More specifically, Zimmerman suggests the necessity of scale in landscape to promote a visceral sense of
“solitude…[that] on the first view of it, inspires the mind with terror, because every thing that brings with it the idea of privation is terrific, and therefore sublime like space, darkness, and silence.”
Specifically, he pinpoints the mountains and hills as an ideal space to encounter these experiences, writing:
“The high enjoyments which the heart feels in solitude are derived from the imagination. The touching aspect of delightful nature, the variegated verdure of the forests, the resounding echoes of an impetuous torrent, the soft agitation of the foliage, the warblings of the tenants of the groves, the beautiful scenery of a rich and extensive country, and all those objects which compose an agreeable landscape, take such complete possession of the soul, and so entirely absorb our faculties, that the sentiments of the mind are by the charms of the imagination instantly converted into sensations of the heart, and the softest emotions give birth to the most virtuous and worthy sentiments. But to enable the imagination thus to render every object fascinating and delightful, it must act with freedom, and dwell amidst surrounding tranquillity. Oh! how easy is it to renounce noisy pleasures and tumultuous assemblies for the enjoyment of that philosophic melancholy which solitude inspires!”
Pushed by this weight of accumulated meaning, our encounter with the Pyrenees Oriental was heavily coloured by our sense of awe-inspiring geographical scale and temporal proportion: the mega-geography of geomorphology, hydrology and biogeographical dynamic processes.
Traversing the route of encounter, inland from Perpignan, builds the spectacle of scale present in the Roussillon and Fenouillèdes, which combine to form present day Pyrenees Oriental – formerly the southern edge of the Languedoc, and the south eastern aspect of the wider Pays Catalan.
The transition in scale is steady following departure from Perpignan, but soon the vista is captivated by the spectacular Canigou Massif (below).
