Environmental History IV symposium
Learning from the Unknown

Le Magasin Électrique
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For its fourth edition, the Environmental History symposium at LUMA Arles brings together historians, scientists, artists, architects and designers to explore ecology through a historical lens.

In an era marked by rapid climate change and ecological uncertainty, Learning from the Unknown offers a framework through which to approach some of the complex environmental challenges of our times. Focusing on questions that address the ecological rupture of ecosystems we are currently experiencing, and looking into the ways in which societies have responded to environmental crises through adaptation, resilience and anticipation, the symposium seeks to understand the different forms and patterns of living, creating, and transmitting knowledge that can emerge when we experience unknown and unfamiliar realities.

From melting glaciers to tracing the history of colonial archives, from forgotten catastrophes of the past to climate projections, the symposium will connect diverse fields of expertise in an attempt to understand how societies confront the unknown.


Dates: From Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1, 2025
Place: LUMA Arles, Le Magasin Électrique, 33 avenue Victor Hugo, 13200 Arles
Price: Free 

Program


Note: All conferences are simultaneously translated (FR > EN)
 

Friday, May 30, 2025
 

  • 6:00 p.m.: Welcome remarks

  • 6:15 p.m.: Introduction
    With Grégory Quenet, Professor of Environmental History, UVSQ, Paris-Saclay University

  • 6:45 p.m.: Conference "Material and Craftsmanship: Backbones for Thriving and Self-Sustaining Communities"
    With Diébédo Francis Kéré, Architect, laureate of the 2022 Pritzker Prize

  • 7:30 p.m.: Grand Prix des Victoires du Paysage 2024 awarded to LUMA Arles for the Parc des Ateliers
    By Michel Audouy, Secretary General, VALHOR and President, Victoires du Paysage

Book your seat for Friday evening


Saturday, May 31, 2025
 

  • 2:00 p.m.: Discussion "An Archeology of the Unknown"
    With David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and Martin Guinard, Curator, LUMA Arles

  • 2:45 p.m.: Conference "Exploring Future Patterns: A Look Back at the IPCC Scenarios"
    With Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Research Director at CEA and former Director of Group I at IPCC

  • 3:15 p.m.: Conference "Is there a historical precedent for the environmental crisis? Reaction to the "Social Question" at the turn of the XXth century"
    With Paul-André Rosental, Professor of History, Sciences Po, Paris

  • 3:45 p.m.: Break

  • 4:00 p.m.: Discussion "Unlocking the Colonial Archive through Artificial Intelligence"
    With Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Centre at Lancaster University, and Salma Mochtari, Research Manager, LUMA Arles

  • 4:15 p.m.: Conference "Inhabiting the Becoming"
    With Éric-Daniel Lacombe, Architect, Cocurator of the French Pavilion, Venice Biennale

  • 4:45 p.m.: Conference "Discursive lock-in? Geological disposal of nuclear waste for future unknowns"
    With Catharina Landström, Head of Division, Chalmers University of Technology

  • 5:15 p.m.: Break

  • 5:30 p.m.: Conference Urban Heat: the Pernicious Spectre" 
    Eléni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer for Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center & UNEP/UNH

  • 6:00 p.m.: Presentations and Discussion "Heat Adaptation in the Mediterranean Context"
    With Thomas Doxiadis, Landscape Architect
    Eléni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer for Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center & UNEP/UNH
    Bas Smets, Landscape Architect, LUMA Arles
    Moderated by Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Artistic Director, LUMA Arles

  • 7:00 p.m.: Lecture-Performance "We are in flood"
    By Ayesha Hameed, Artist, Kone Foundation Research Fellow, Professor of Artistic Research, Uniarts Helsinki, and Tom Hirst, Musician

Book your seat for Saturday afternoon


Sunday, June 1, 2025
 

  • 10:00 a.m.: Conference "Salt Frontiers: The Rhône River Delta and the Threat of Salinization"
    With Matthieu Duperrex, Associate Professor in Human and Social Sciences, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Marseille

  • 10:15 a.m.: Conference "Abyssal Visions. The Science/Fictions of the Bermuda Oceanographic Expeditions (1929-1940)"
    With Magdalena Grüner, PhD Candidate, Hamburg University

  • 10:30 a.m.: Conference "Here, Here, the Wonderful Clouds ... The Fog Sculpture (1970) by Fujiko Nakaya"
    With Christophe Leclercq, Lecturer, École du Louvre

  • 10:45 a.m.: Conference "The Apocalypse as Revelation: “Remembering What Is to Come”"
    WIth Jeanne Brun, Art Historian, Deputy Director, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou

  • 11:00 a.m.: Break

  • 11:15 a.m.: Conference "But who's fighting for beauty? Artistic practices and ecofeminist perspectives in the wake of Japan's March 11 triple disaster"
    With Élodie Royer, Curator, PhD Candidate, École Normale Supérieure

  • 11:30 a.m.: Conference "The Universe Without Man: Fantasizing the Unknown - Between Terror and Pleasure (1859-2025)"
    With Thomas Schlesser, Author, Director, Foundation Hartung-Bergman

Book your seat for Sunday morning
 

  • 2:00 p.m.: Conference "Presentation of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT "
    With Skylar Tibbits, Founder of the Self-Assembly Lab, MIT

  • 2:30 p.m.: Conference "Humboldt Glaciers: Aesthetics of the Unknown in the Tropical Andes"
    With Olivier Dangles, Research Director, Center of Functional and Evolutive Ecology (CEFE), Montpellier, France

  • 3:00 p.m.: Conference
    With Amita Baviskar, Professor of Environmental Studies, Sociology and  Anthropology, Ashoka University

  • 3:30 p.m.: Break

  • 3:45 p.m.: Discussion "On trial: The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC)"
    With Jonas Staal, Artist, and Radha D'Souza, Professor of Law, Westminster University

  • 4:15 p.m.: Screening of the film Sarcophagus of Drunken Loves 
    By artists Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas

  • 4:45 p.m.: Discussion
    With Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas, Artists and Filmmakers

Book your seat for Sunday afternoon

Speakers

Amita Baviskar, Professor of Environmental Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University

Jeanne Brun, Art historian, Deputy Director, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou

Radha D'Souza, Professor of Law, Westminster University

Olivier Dangles, Research Director, Center of Functional and Evolutive Ecology (CEFE), Montpellier, France

Thomas Doxiadis, Landscape Architect

Matthieu Duperrex, Associate Professor in Human and Social Sciences, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Marseille

Magdalena Grüner, PhD Candidate, Hamburg University

Ayesha Hameed, Artist, Kone Foundation Research Fellow and Professor, Artistic Research, Uniarts Helsinki

Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas, Artists and Filmmakers

Tom Hirst, Musician

Diébédo Francis Kéré, Architect, laureate of the 2022 Pritzker Prize

Catharina Landström, Head of Division, Chalmers University of Technology

Eric-Daniel Lacombe, Architect, Cocurator of the French Pavilion, Venice Biennale

Christophe Leclercq, Lecturer, École du Louvre

Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Research Director at CEA and former Director of the group I at IPCC

Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Centre at Lancaster University

Eléni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer for Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center 
& UNEP/UNH

Grégory Quenet, Professor of Environmental History, UVSQ, Paris-Saclay University

Paul-André Rosental, Professor of History, Sciences Po, Paris

Élodie Royer, Curator, PhD Candidate, École Normale Supérieure

Thomas Schlesser, Author, Director, Foundation Hartung-Bergman

Bas Smets, Landscape Architect, LUMA Arles

Jonas Staal, Artist

Skylar Tibbits, Founder of the Self-Assembly Lab, MIT

David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UCL)


Past editions

Environmental History symposium I
Thursday, August 25 to Friday, August 26, 2022


How do societies develop their understanding of the environment through processes of interdependency? Why is it important to analyze the past and present of our environmental thinking at this moment in time? How can we reposition the notion of non-human agents— whether these be animals, forests, soil, air, or bacteria—as key protagonists in historical processes? 

Replay of the conferences


Environmental History symposium II
From Saturday, May 27 to Sunday, May 28, 2023


For its second edition, the Environmental History symposium asked 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.

Replay of the conferences

 

Environmental History symposium III
From Saturday, May 24 to Sunday, May 26, 2024

Starting from the premise that industrial societies had profoundly damaged landscapes and ecosystems, the third edition explored an important question: What could emerge in our damaged landscapes when the increasing impermeability of soil, global-scale urbanism and densification, and vast deforestation were existentially at odds with the idea of a garden as a designed landscape of mediation between nature and culture?

Replay of the conferences


The Symposium is organized in collaboration with Scientific Advisor Grégory Quenet, Professor of Environmental History, UVSQ, Paris-Saclay University, and LUMA Arles team:

  • Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Artistic Director, 
  • Martin Guinard, Curator, 
  • Salma Mochtari, Research Manager.

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