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AURA INVALIDES: How to promote heritage and diversify its audiences through an immersive experience?

Wednesday 03 April 2024 | 16:45
Workshop organised by Cultival, with the Musée de l'Armée-Hôtel national des Invalides.

Immersive experiences are on the increase in France and abroad. For Cultival, immersive experiences are a tool for enhancing our heritage, helping visitors discover it in a new way and attracting a diverse audience.
This workshop will present the different challenges of AURA INVALIDES, from its genesis to its opening to the public, and how Cultival & the Musée de l'Armée - Hôtel national des Invalides have worked together.

In addition to the shared desire to develop our audiences, we had to agree on the direction we wanted to take in terms of the visitor experience and the narrative and aesthetic choices we made. The integration of the facilities within the Dôme, as well as the reversibility of the installations and respect for the site and the works of art, were central concerns. In terms of operations, the aim was to create a new balance in terms of flow management processes and the occupation of space on a site that is constrained by a large number of players.

Today, AURA INVALIDES is a resounding success, with over 120,000 visitors in 5 months.

Speakers:
  • Thibault Manchon: Founder & CEO of Cultival.
Thibault began his career with a master's degree in finance from the IPAG Business School and dual validation from the Fachhoschule in Wiesbaden (D) and the University of Hertfordshire (UK). With a passion for the technical professions, it was only natural that he should join the teams of an importer of professional audiovisual equipment, before moving on to ADB -OSRAM, a lighting equipment manufacturer, as Marketing Director. In 2000, he combined his entrepreneurial spirit with his passion to create Cultival, an agency specialising in the development of exclusive cultural projects and the promotion of French heritage. With this same desire to see French heritage shine on an international scale, Cultival has made the bold choice to produce and operate immersive experiences in heritage sites, such as AURA INVALIDES, which plays in the evening in the heart of the Dôme des Invalides. "Passionate about the history of France and its exceptional heritage, I'm keen to create innovative mediation tools for emblematic institutions to arouse the curiosity of French and international visitors and offer a new way of discovering France's heritage". Thibault Manchon, Founder & CEO.

  • Sébastien Bontemps: Head of Heritage Promotion at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris.
Sébastien Bontemps is a graduate of the Ecole du Louvre and holds a doctorate in art history. The author of a thesis on religious sculpted decoration in Paris, he is a former recipient of the Daniel Arasse Fellowship at the Villa Médicis and worked for several years at the Institut national d'histoire de l'art. He then joined the German Art History Centre in Paris and has taught at eight higher education establishments, including the Ecole du Louvre and the Ecole des Chartes. A visiting researcher at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, he worked there in collaboration with the University of Paris Nanterre on topographical views of Paris in the seventeenth century.  Winner of a Bonus Qualité Recherche post-doctoral grant, his work then led him to the University of Burgundy to study sculpture in the Grand Siècle. He is now putting his background and skills to good use by working on the study, conservation and enhancement of the Invalides site in Paris.

Speakers

Thibault Manchon

CULTIVAL – Fondateur & CEO