Environmental History IV symposium
Learning from the Unknown

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

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.