Project developed in partnership with AA School University

Beach Rituals is an ephemeral intervention carried out in Ault, in the Picardy region (France), as part of a programme that explored the synergies between the local community and the natural geography. The town, which was once a vibrant tourist destination in the early 20th century, now faces the impacts of coastal erosion — a natural process that has profoundly transformed its relationship with the sea. The project proposed strategies of nanotravel to symbolically reactivate the rituals of bathing and occupying the beach, in dialogue with local memory and the landscape in constant negotiation between land and sea.

Using materials collected from local markets, the team constructed a mobile bathing cabin — a gesture that reinterprets past bathing practices in a contemporary way. The installation, positioned during low tide and subsequently submerged by high tide, offers a new perspective on the occupation of coastal space, as a slow and collective ritual. The experience reinforces that any real and lasting transformation in the territory can only occur with the active involvement of the local community.