Last modified: 2010-11-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: republique libre du frioul | cross (blue) | sun: 16 rays |
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![[RLF flag]](../images/f/fr-13-rf.gif)
Flag of RLF - Image by Ivan Sache, 6 January 2001
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The République Libre du Frioul is a strange entity: the flag is really flown, the name of the entity is patented, the place exists but the entity has no borders... However, it is not a commercial entity like Seborga but a cultural and artistic project.
The plastician Jean-Claude Mayo was born in 1945 in Tananarive
(now Antananarivo, in
Madagascar) from Reunionese origin. He lives
now in Marseilles. He produces traditional loft works but also
monumental scenographies (for instance, Symbiosis for a vulcano and
birds, a group of 12 6-meter high giants which were established
on the flank of the Piton de la Fournaise on Réunion island just before an eruption).
His main goal is "to give the reality the apparence of our
dreams".
In 1989, in need a new creation place, Mayo purchased with his wife Nadine Fort Brégantin, built during the First Empire on the island
of Ratonneau, part of the Frioul archipelago, located off Marseilles. Aimed to transform this "stone of the roadsted of Marseilles" into "a pearl onto the world's navel", the République Libre du Frioul (RLF) was born, as an evolutive, random conceptual work based on a "totally libertarian concept".
République Libre du Frioul should be written with a
mirorred "R", the first "E" in "République" and the "E" in
"Libre" as a Greek ε, the last "E" in "République" as a mirorred Greek εn, and the "O" of "Frioul" filled with the sun that appears on the flag.
This jovial and conquerring state has a President appointed ad
vitam aeternam (for ever), named Égrégore Le Virtuel, while J.C. Mayo is Convoying-Minister of the Word. Everyone can apply for a Ministery by sending a letter to Égrégore Le Virtuel. There are already Ministers of the Rings, of the Associated Pleasures, of Fine Words etc.. Each application letter shall be read during the Council of Ministers (about 400 members) and the answer shall be "Yes". There are already embassies in Paris, Canada, Brazil, Belgium and Germany.
The only definitive rule of the Republic is that there should not be any
rule. There are no territorial revendication since the Republic has no
limits beyond the imagination of its ministers.
The Republic organizes cultural and artistic events on the islands
(for instance, the Night of the Tales).
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 6 January 2001
The flag of the République Libre du Frioul is white with a blue decentered cross, charged with a yellow sun in the middle. The flag clearly alludes to the flag of Marseilles but the cross is decentered and the blue colour is more saturated (the shade of the sea when the mistral wind is blowing, close to the International Klein Blue patented by the painter Yves Klein).
The image shown above was made after the document shown in the review of the Regional Council, with the sun extending beyond the arms of the cross arms. The real flags shown on the website of the Republic (images no longer available) seem to have a simplified sun enclosed in the square made by the intersection of the arms of the cross.
Ivan Sache, 6 January 2001
The motto of the Republic is Un seul soleil, chacun son
ombre (A single sun, a shadow for everyone).
The emblem of the Republic is a bird in perpetual invention, the grand gouillon. (Grand couillon! is a traditional way to say "You, stupid!" in Marseilles and other parts of southern France.)
The Republic has a "polycurrency", soon to be convertible in euros, without a defined unit.
Ivan Sache, 6 January 2001