Sacredness by Design. Narratives and frames for the materiality of Notre-Dame de Paris – SACRADE

The research program SACRADE explores the materials used to rebuild the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the objects destined to return to it, as well as the groups of people who consider themselves concerned by its restoration. It aims to document the creation of narratives and the models of heroization and spectacularization that accompany the material reconstruction of Notre Dame in preparation for its reopening to the public, announced for 2024.

Methodologically, the program combines anthropological, historical, and legal perspectives. One approach focuses on the transformations affecting the stone and wood chosen to rebuild the collapsed vaulting, roof framing, and spire, while another compares these transformations to the life histories of objects in Notre Dame’s treasury – relics, furnishings, liturgical objects – destined to return to the restored historic building.

The program’s theoretical agenda is to analyze the mechanisms for the attribution of sacredness and the construction of authenticity in terms of religion and heritage. By observing the uses and representations made of these varied materials and objects and documenting their histories and transformations, we want to understand how actors involved in various levels of this “extra-ordinary” restoration go about reducing the heterogeneity of its components, aggregating them into a whole, and connecting them to the history and singularities of the edifice.

Empirically, the program has three complementary objectives: 1) observing the transformation of materials and the preparation of objects destined to return to Notre Dame; 2) identifying the conceptions of authenticity and restoration underlying this activity; and 3) characterizing the groups engaged in the rebuilding of Notre Dame de Paris.