The temporary exhibition “L’olivier notre arbre”, on show since May 2023 at the Musée de Salagon in Mane, enables visitors to to discover the many facets and challenges of the olive-growing heritage through five themed areas. The first room shows visitors the many representations of the olive tree (everyday objects, vacation memories, landscapes, smells…). The second shows the heritage of the olive tree, handed down from generation to generation and present at every moment of life. Before discovering the realities of olive-growing heritage in the contemporary world, visitors are invited to settle into a sensory space. Here, they can listen to an immersive sound work. The final room presents the olive tree as a living heritage, a source of innovation and development for the communities involved. Three documentaries are shown in another part of the site, evoking the olive-growing heritage as a means of promoting tourism in Portugal, but also how this heritage bears witness to everyday life in Provence.

In addition to an expert evaluation of the exhibition, carried out during the Rendez-vous aux jardins in June by a team of researchers from the “GIS Patrimoine en partage“, a public reception survey is being carried out until the end of July.

The survey has several aims. First and foremost, it provides information on the profile of visitors to the exhibition, their motivations for visiting and their interest in the olive tree theme. It also enables us to gather their opinions and satisfaction levels. The possible impact of the exhibition on the consumption of olive products and on visitors’ diets, as well as on their knowledge of olive heritage, is also assessed. Lastly, this survey provides an opportunity to observe visitor behaviour throughout the visit, and to understand how they make the exhibition their own.
To achieve these objectives, various data collection tools have been developed, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches.

• A questionnaire
  This questionnaire was designed to obtain statistical data on the exhibition’s audience, their level of satisfaction and the potential impact of the exhibition on their perception of olive-growing heritage.
• Observing visitor itineraries
  Visitor itineraries are very interesting to observe, enabling us to understand how visitors move around the exhibition halls, and also to see which elements they gravitate towards the most, and which they neglect.
• Semi-structured interviews
  Offered as a complement to the path observations, these short interviews focus on the room visitors have just visited. These interviews provide an opportunity to identify what visitors have retained and understood about the space they have just visited. They were also conducted in English and German, in order to include foreign visitors in the survey.
  A longer interview format is also offered at the end of the visit, covering the entire exhibition. Longer interviews are also carried out with museum staff, who have a long-term perspective on the life of this exhibition within the site.
• Informal exchanges during olive leaf infusion tastings
  During the Rendez-vous aux jardins weekend, a tasting of olive leaf infusion was offered. The tasting provided an opportunity for informal discussions with visitors about the tasting and, above all, the exhibition. Given the success of this format, several tastings will be offered during the survey period.

See you in September for the results of this survey!

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