Pablo Santacana López

Softcore Reenactments: Puy du Fou and the identitarian spatialization of the past

This dissertation investigates how Puy du Fou—a network of historical theme parks in France and Spain—mobilizes far-right and identitarian ideologies through immersive, technologically sophisticated, and affect-driven representations of the past. While the shift from historical authenticity to affect and atmosphere in heritage practices is well established, what marks the contemporary moment is the unprecedented precision of these immersive techniques, and their deployment within a political climate increasingly shaped by exclusionary nationalist imaginaries.

Founded in 1989 by French politician Philippe de Villiers and expanded to Spain in 2020, Puy du Fou stages mythologized national histories through large-scale performances rooted in Catholic martyrdom, regional myths, and military heroism. These spectacles are emotionally charged and meticulously designed to produce a visceral experience of historical truth. Through sound, architecture, choreography, and scenography, the parks orchestrate a sense of temporal coherence that feels authentic, while openly disavowing any political agenda. Framed as neutral entertainment, Puy du Fou nonetheless advances ideologies of rootedness, purity, and civilizational pride—rhetorics central to contemporary far-right cultural strategies across Europe.

To conceptualize the park’s political function, the dissertation introduces the notion of softcore reenactment. Unlike traditional “hardcore” reenactments, which privilege historical fidelity and empirical rigor, softcore modes prioritize spectacle, distortion, and emotional immediacy. These forms operate through symbolic ambiguity and aesthetic seduction, inviting audiences into affective identification with sanitized, heroic pasts. In this framework, Puy du Fouemerges as a metapolitical apparatus: a form of soft power where politics is not argued but dramatized, not stated but embodied.

The research explores how such affective and spatial strategies produce specific historical imaginaries that align with far-right cultural narratives. It situates Puy du Fou within a broader landscape of reactionary heritage production, examining how nostalgia, immersive technology, and emotional design coalesce into an effective mechanism of ideological dissemination. The park serves not only as a tourist destination but as a laboratory for testing how history can be weaponized through entertainment.

Methodologically, the dissertation draws on performance studies, critical heritage theory, cultural geography, and visual anthropology. It combines fieldwork conducted in both French and Spanish parks with spatial analysis, discourse analysis of promotional materials and interviews, and a historiographic critique of the narratives on display. This interdisciplinary framework allows for a nuanced investigation into how space, embodiment, and narrative co-produce affective forms of political persuasion.

Ultimately, the dissertation argues that Puy du Fou exemplifies how the past is being mobilized as a site of affective governance in 21st-century Europe. It highlights the need to critically engage with the aesthetics and infrastructures of public memory as powerful instruments in contemporary ideological struggles. Rather than moralizing or dismissing these forms, the work calls for scholarly and institutional strategies that acknowledge their cultural power and political function, especially in the face of resurgent far-right cultural influence.

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Publications

• Santacana López, Pablo: “The Reactionary Repertoire: From embodied Gestures of the Past to Performative Politics of the Present”, in: Performance Research, Vol. 29 No. 1 “On Repertoire”, forthcoming. ISSN 1352‑8165
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “Immersive heritage as embodied politics: Physical perception and historical perspective at Puy du Fou’s hyperreal environments”, in: Bodies in, as, of, with, and ‘Identity and Heritage’, Bauhaus Universitätsverlag, forthcoming
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “Queer(ing) Grunderzeit: Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, the Mulackritze, and the camp performativity of heritage”, in: The Journal of Architecture, Routledge, forthcoming. ISSN 21360‑2365
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “Der Themenpark Puy du Fou als Modell rechts-identitärer Raumpraxis”, in: Arch+, forthcoming. ISSN 0587‑3452
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “Puy du Fou as ‘Softcore Historicity’: Troubling performative heritage”, in: Nomeikaite, L., Frers, L., Haldrup, M. (eds.), Arts, Heritage, and Performative Politics, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “Stone Carving Activism”, in: Para‑Journal, Out of Storage, 2023. ISSN 2748‑2413
•  Santacana López, Pablo, Friederike Landau‑Donnelly, Mareike C. Schwarz: “The Queering of Monuments”, in: Art & the Public Sphere, 2023. ISSN 2042‑793X
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “Authority, accessibility and antagonism: Embodied historiographies towards a democratic urban praxis”, in: Media | Archive | Performance, Urbane Praxis Special Issue, PERFOMAP, Leipzig, 2023. ISSN 2191‑0901
•  Santacana López, Pablo: co-publisher: Dinge, die verbinden, Schriftenreihe des DFG‑Graduiertenkollegs 2227 „Identität und Erbe“, Bauhaus Universitätsverlag, 2023. ISBN 395773312X
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “Whose Expression? The Brücke Artists and Colonialism”, in: Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 34(3), 2022. DOI: 10.5209/aris.81020
•  Santacana López, Pablo, autor colectivo: Atlas de un barrio, Vendedores de Humo, Madrid, 2022. ISBN 978‑84‑09‑56583‑3
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “5.3 Million Objects”, in: Texte Zur Kunst, Issue 126 / “Mourning”, 6/2022. ISSN 0940‑9459
•  Santacana López, Pablo: “El papel de la memoria”, in: NEO2 Magazine, 2021. ISSN 1227‑0903
• Santacana López, Pablo: Marta M. Legido: “Esfera piedra, Polígono”, Instituto de la Juventud, 2021
• Santacana López, Pablo, Zoe Ritts: “Der Sound des Mythos, Berliner Clubs zwischen Alternativkultur und Gentrifizierung”, in Arch+ Issue 241 “Berlin Theorie”, 2020. URL: https://archplus.net/de/ausgabe/241/#article-5901
• Santacana López, Pablo:  “Privilege carved on stone, On the reconstruction of colonial legacy and the safeguarding of living cultures in the Humboldt Forum, Berlin“  in: Arts Of The Working Class, Issue n°13 “Eurothanasia”, 2020.  URL: http://artsoftheworkingclass.org/text/privilege-carved-in-stone
• Santacana López, Pablo: “Redrawing the MAP of 90´s Berlin”, in: Contemporary And (C&), Issue n°10 “Another 89”.
• Santacana López, Pablo: “The Castle, The Palace, The Mirage, On Esper Postma’s “Mirror Stage” At Gropius Bau, Berlin” in Texte Zur Kunst, URL https://www.textezurkunst.de/articles/pablo-santacana-lopez-castle-palace-mirage/
• Santacana López, Pablo: “Spatial Struggle and Queer Resistance”, in Kaltblut Magazine, 2021. URL  https://www.kaltblut-magazine.com/spatial-struggle-and-queer-resistance-by-pablo-santacana-lopez/
• Santacana López, Pablo:  “Time Loops: Reenactment, reconstruction and historical mimicry”, in: Eigenart Magazine, Universität der Künste Berlin, 2020. URL https://eigenart-magazin.de/time-loops-reenactment-reconstruction-and-historical-mimicry/