Environmental History symposium

Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?

For its second edition, the Environmental History symposium will ask the questions: Which narratives, which poetics and which history for the Earth? These problematics will frame the different approaches to understanding fragile ecosystems, land use, and the ways in which these environments were perceived historically through poetry and prose. What are the layers of human action deposited upon the environment and its visible manifestations? How has Environmental History shifted since its emergence as a field of inquiry in the XXth century? And what is the current status of reflections, at a moment when the impact of human activity undeniably shapes the realms of the visible and the invisible?

Invited historians, poets, artists, scientists, architects and other cultural practitioners will offer their unique insights through a series of talks and debates, putting forward novel hypotheses and ideas. Part of the symposium will be dedicated to the work of Atelier LUMA. It will be complemented by selected readings about the environment, honoring the work of pioneering artist and author Etel Adnan.

Conferences dates: Saturday, May 27 and Sunday, May 28
Place: LUMA Arles, Le Magasin Électrique, 33 avenue Victor Hugo, 13200 Arles
Price: Free 

Program
 

Saturday, May 27
"Ghosts of the Future"
 

• Opening remarks
   
• 1:30 p.m.: Introduction
  Grégory Quenet, Professor of Environmental History, University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 2:15 p.m.: Time of the World / Time of the Anthropocene: the simultaneous of the non simultaneous
  
  François Hartog, Director of the Chair of Ancient and Modern Historiography at EHESS
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 2:45 p.m.: Healing the Web of Life: the Buffalo Nations Food System of the Northern Plains and Rockies [via Zoom]
  
  Jill Falcon Ramaker (Anishinaabe: Ojibwe Nation), Assistant Professor/Director, Buffalo Nations Food System Initiative at Montana State University
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 3:00 p.m.: Break
   
• 3:10 p.m.: Ancient DNA, Genetics in the History of Horses and Humans
  Ludovic Orlando, Director of Research at the CNRS, Director of the Anthropobiology and Genomics Center of Toulouse
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 4:00 p.m.: Journey to the Earth's surface. Geochemical Perspective on Habitability
  Jérôme Gaillardet, Professor of Earth Sciences at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 4:30 p.m.: Terrestrial architectures, rebuilding the common good
  Salima Naji, Architect and Anthropologist
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 5:00 p.m.: Planetary Blues: Environmental History, Good and Bad Ghosts of the Future
  Christof Mauch, Director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 5:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.: Conclusion
  Maria Finders and Martin Guinard, curators, LUMA Arles
• 6:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.: Break
   
• 6:45 p.m.: Discussion on the occasion of the opening of Le Magasin Électrique
  “Every building is a prediction, and every prediction is wrong.” ¹
  [¹Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built, Viking Press,1994.] 
  
  Maja Hoffmann, Founder and President of the LUMA Foundation, and Founder of LUMA Arles
  Jan Boelen, Artistic Director at Atelier LUMA
  Laurens Bekemans, Architect, Co-founder BC architects & studies
  Guillaume Habert, Chair of Sustainable Construction, ETH Zürich
  Joe Halligan, Architect, Co-founder Assemble
  Salima Naji, Architect and Anthropologist
   

  Replay of the discussion

   

Sunday, May 28 
"Stories, Poetics, and the Science of Remembering"
 

• 10:30 a.m.: Air, Ventilation, Breathing in the 18th Century
  Marie Thébaud-Sorger, Associate researcher at the Centre for the History of Science and Technology Alexandre Koyré in Paris and Visiting Researcher at the Maison Française d’Oxford
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 11:00 a.m.: Anthropocene Enquiry in Arles. Exhibitions in Light of the Heat Wave
  Valérie Disdier, President of Cité anthropocène and Deputy Director of the Lyon Urban School
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 11:30 a.m.: A Metabolic History of Agriculture in 19th-Century Marseille. Temporalities, Organic Transactions, Ruptures
  Rémi Grisal, Doctoral student in contemporary history at Aix-Marseille University
   

  Replay of the conference
• 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.: Break
   
• 1:30 p.m.: Projection of a film by Julien Creuzet
  Mon corps, carcasse, se casse casse casse / Mon corps canne à sucre flèche flèche flèche / Mon corps banane est en larme larme larme / Mon corps peau noire, au coucher du soleil, / ne trouve le sommeil / Mon corps plantation poison / Mon corps plantation poison / Mon corps plantation / Demande la rançon / La pluie n’est plus la pluie / La pluie goutte aiguille / La pluie acide pesticide / La pluie infanticide / Mon père vivait près de la rivière / La rivière était à la lisière / Du champ de banane pour panam / Banane rouge poudrière / Sous les tropiques du Cancer, 2019
   
• 1:45 p.m.: The Historical Resonances of Chlordecone, a Pesticide in the French Antilles
  Philippe Verdol, Lecturer at University of the French West Indies and Guiana
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 2:15 p.m.: The Against Nature Journal. Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the Heritage of "Against Nature" Laws
  Grégory Castéra, Curator and Co-founder of the journal TANJ
  Dayna Ash, Artist and activist [via Zoom]
   
• 3:00 p.m.: Break
   
• 3:15 p.m.: Dancing in the Zoo. On Simone Forti's Choreographic Work with and for Zoo Animals
  Filipa Ramos, Writer and curator
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 3:45 p.m.: Vegetal Witnessing and Plant Echoes
  Uriel Orlow, artist
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 4:15 p.m.: Remember Nature
  Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries; Senior Advisor, LUMA Arles
   

  Replay of the conference

   
• 5:00 p.m.: Homage to Etel Adnan.
  Performance and reading of a selection of poems relating to the environment in her work.
  Simone Fattal, Artist, Poet
  Rayya Badran, Writer, translator, and educator
  Sharif Sehnaoui, Musician, free improvising guitarist
  Christine Abdelnour, Musician, free improvising saxophonist
  
  Poetry readings by Wu Tsang, Tosh Basco, Eileen Myles, Precious Okoyomon, and many other artists and poets.

Participants

The Symposium is organized in collaboration with Scientific Advisor Grégory Quenet, Professor of Environmental History at Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, and LUMA Arles team: Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Director of Exhibitions and Programs, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Senior Advisor, Maria Finders, Curator, Martin Guinard, Curator, and Jan Boelen, Artistic Director, Atelier LUMA.