LILLE European Summer Program

Every person is unique, but people from the same country share a set of behavioral codes, customs, beliefs and values. In this module we look at how French people tend to see time, hierarchy, rules, formality, freedom, the relation between job and private life, as well as tradition and change.

You will also discover some of the main cultural orientations that have been described by scientists such as Hofstede, Trompenaars and Hall.

World War I – la Grande Guerre, the Great War – had a major impact on Lille, physically, historically, and culturally. Many of its effects remain visible if one knows what to look for. The city’s architecture and public monuments tell stories, but it is sometimes hard to tell truth from fiction. English speakers automatically distinguish fictional “stories” from factual “history,” yet in French the same word can be used for both: histoire. And historians are highly aware of how facts can be differently interpreted, and differently arranged to suggest different “truths.”

Artists and designers, too, manipulate both truth and appearance. Appearances can be deceiving, but fiction sometimes reveals truths that would otherwise remain invisible. This mini-course examines a few notable WWI-related landmarks in Lille, and the stories they tell.

This mini-course will present the artistic highlights of the Lille region. Museums and architectural heritage that matter in art history; several of their masterpieces will be emphasized.

Louvre-Lens, Lille Palais des Beaux-Arts, Roubaix La Piscine Museum, Villa Cavrois will give you the will to come and visit the other outstanding cultural places that Lille offers.

We often wonder how and why art is collected, curated, and exhibited in different ways throughout France and we will compare this to other ways. We will also examine how the artistic taste can evolve in a few years.

We will approach art history by selecting a few works among international masterpieces : paintings, drawings, sculptures and architectures by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Yayoï Kusama, SANAA, Rodin, Michelangelo, Donatello, Degas, Goya, Rubens, Manet and Berthe Morisot, Delacroix, Chagall, Sonia Delaunay.