Now showing at LUMA Arles: David Armstrong, Liu Chuang, Maria Lassnig, Philippe Parreno, and Tony Oursler

Now showing at LUMA Arles: David Armstrong, Liu Chuang, Maria Lassnig, Philippe Parreno, and Tony Oursler
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Symposium: Environmental History

All conferences and performances

The Environmental History symposium aimed to reassess and rethink human reality and history from diverse perspectives, framing them within a context defined by complexity and continuous transformation. It brought together voices from multiple disciplines—including ecologists, climate experts, and researchers—alongside artists, architects, designers, and philosophers to begin outlining this complex and compelling field of inquiry.

 

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The first edition of the symposium

2022

LUMA_1920_1280_72DPI
The second edition of the symposium

2023

August 25–27, 2022
Environmental History I

Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?

The symposium examined the concept of the environment as a constantly evolving set of unstable data. It explored how the environment changes through multiple circumstances, often involving the human species. Environmental History was presented as a rich framework for understanding the transformation of societies within the environments they created or with which they evolved.

The symposium also addressed how societies develop their understanding of the environment through processes of interdependency, why it is essential to analyze the past and present of environmental thought at this moment in time, and how the notion of non-human agents—whether animals, forests, soil, air, or bacteria—might be repositioned as key protagonists in historical processes.

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The Environmental History symposium is co-organized by the teams at LUMA Arles and Grégory Quenet, a historian and pioneer of environmental history in France, who serves as the symposium’s scientific advisor.
Photo: © Adrian Deweerdt

Talks and performances from the first edition

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video
What Can Environmental History Do? The Environmental Historian and His Fellow Grégory Quenet
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 62min
Environment , Conference
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video
Faunal Nationalism in an Emerging Economy; Tigers, Science and Society 1969-2019 Mahesh Rangarajan
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 29min
Environment , Conference , Biodiversity
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video
Land-Grabs on Agricultural Lands Lucile Leclair
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 17min
Environment , Conference
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video
Are Plants Invasive? Véronique Mure
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 24min
Environment , Conference , Biodiversity
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video
The Camargue Between Two Water-Ways: The Rhône and the Sea Estelle Rouquette
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 38min
Environment , Conference , Camargue
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video
Living with the Mistral: The Past and Future of Regional Climate Adaptation in France Catherine T. Dunlop
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 43min
Environment , Conference , Arles
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video
Living with Heat: Bodies and People in Urban India's Changing Climate Amita Baviskar
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 41min
Environment , Conference , Social issues
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video
Making a History of Environmental Struggles Steve Hagimont
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 35min
Environment , Conference
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video
Why has nothing changed? Perspectives on Environmental Struggles Amita Baviskar,  Catherine T. Dunlop,  Lucile Leclair,  Steve Hagimont,  Martin Guinard
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 58min
Environment , Conference
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video
Tales of an Urban Forest: Multispecies Alliances in Morro de Babilônia, Rio de Janeiro, 1995-2020 Lise Sedrez
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 37min
Environment , Conference
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video
Writing the Environmental History of 18th Century Paris Through its Gardens Jan Synowiecki
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 32min
Environment , Conference
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video
Urban Micro-Climates Bas Smets
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 36min
Environment , Conference
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video
Gardens for Changing the City Bas Smets,  Jan Synowiecki,  Lise Sedrez,  Martin Guinard
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 47min
Environment , Conference
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video
Retrofutur: From the History of Energy Innovations to Retro-Tech Loïc Rogard
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 15min
Environment , Conference
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video
Centre for Contemporary Nature: pyro-forensis Samaneh Moafi
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 39min
Environment , Conference
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video
Preparing for an Urban Exodus? Sébastien Marot
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 30min
Environment , Architecture , Conference , Social issues
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video
Hell on Earth Timothy Morton
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 34min
Environment , Conference
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video
Of Bark and Lead, In Search of Stories to Embark on the Critical Zone Claire Dutrait
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 20min
Environment , Conference , Social issues
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video
Stop Saving the Planet! Jenny Price
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 41min
Environment , Conference
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video
Why Has Everything Changed? The Future of Environmental History Jenny Price,  Timothy Morton,  Maria Finders,  Samaneh Moafi,  Grégory Quenet
Environmental History I: Climate, environment and human activity: shall we rethink History?
~ 47min
Environment , Conference

About the speakers from the first edition

Over several days, ecologists, climate experts, artists, architects, designers, and philosophers came together to begin outlining a rich and interconnected field of inquiry.

Amita Baviskar

Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology & Anthropology

Catherine T. Dunlop

Associate Professor of History and the Director of Graduate Studies in History

Claire Dutrait

Author, Co-Founder of the collective Urbain, trop urbain, and a Doctoral student

Saodat Ismailova

filmmaker and artist

Lucile Leclair

Journalist

Sébastien Marot

PhD

Christof Mauch

Director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society

Samaneh Moafi

Senior Researcher at Forensic Architecture

Timothy Morton

Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University and Director of the Cool America Foundation

Véronique Mure

Botanist and Tropical Agronomy Engineer

Jenny Price

Public Writer, Artist, and Historian

Grégory Quenet

Professor of Environmental History University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

Mahesh Rangarajan

Head of the Department of Environmental Studies, Ashoka University

Estelle Rouquette

Doctor of Art History and Archeology

Lise Sedrez

Associate Professor in History of the Americas

Bas Smets

Landscape architect, LUMA Arles

Mark D. Spence

Doctor of History

Jan Synowiecki

Lecturer in Modern History

Want to explore more content?

Browse the catalog!

May 27–28, 2023
Environmental History II

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

For its second edition, the Environmental History symposium addressed the following questions: which narratives, which poetics, and which histories for the Earth?

These questions framed a range of approaches to understanding fragile ecosystems, land use, and the ways environments have been perceived over time through poetry and prose. The symposium examined the layers of human action inscribed upon the environment and their visible traces, explored how Environmental History has evolved since its emergence as a field of inquiry in the twentieth century, and considered the current state of these reflections at a moment when human activity undeniably shapes both the visible and the invisible.

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Photo: © Adrian Deweerdt

Talks and performances from the second edition

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video
Inhabiting the Earth Differently: An Introduction to Environmental History Grégory Quenet
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 35min
Environment , Conference
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video
Time of the World / Time of the Anthropocene: the simultaneous of the non simultaneous François Hartog
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 44min
Environment , Conference
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video
Healing the Web of Life: the Buffalo Nations Food System of the Northern Plains and Rockies Jill Falcon Ramaker
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 27min
Environment , Conference , Social issues
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video
Ancient DNA, Genetics in the History of Horses and Humans Ludovic Orlando
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 43min
Environment , Conference , Biodiversity
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video
Journey to the Earth's surface. Geochemical Perspective on Habitability Jérôme Gaillardet
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 31min
Environment , Conference
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video
Terrestrial architectures, rebuilding the common good Salima Naji
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 27min
Environment , Conference , Architecture
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video
Planetary Blues: Environmental History, Good and Bad Ghosts of the Future Christof Mauch
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 45min
Environment , Conference
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video
Discussion on the occasion of the opening of Le Magasin Électrique “Every building is a prediction, and every prediction is wrong.” Jan Boelen,  Joe Halligan,  Maria Finders,  Laurens Bekemans,  Guillaume Habert,  Salima Naji
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 70min
Environment , Architecture , Conference , Atelier LUMA
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video
Air, Ventilation, Breathing in the 18th Century Marie Thébaud-Sorger
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 44min
Environment , Conference
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video
Anthropocene Enquiry in Arles. Exhibitions in Light of the Heat Wave Valérie Disdier
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 18min
Environment , Exhibition , Arles
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video
A Metabolic History of Agriculture in 19th-Century Marseille. Temporalities, Organic Transactions, Ruptures Rémi Grisal
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 33min
Environment , Conference
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video
The Historical Resonances of Chlordecone, a Pesticide in the French Antilles Philippe Verdol
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 47min
Environment , Conference , Social issues
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video
Dancing in the Zoo. On Simone Forti's Choreographic Work "with" and "for" Zoo Animals Filipa Ramos
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 35min
Environment , Conference , Biodiversity
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video
Vegetal Witnessing and Plant Echoes Uriel Orlow
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 34min
Environment , Conference , Biodiversity
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video
Remembering Nature Hans Ulrich Obrist
Environmental History II: Which narratives, which poetics, which history for the Earth?
~ 31min
Environment , Conference , Art

About the speakers from the second edition

The symposium brought together researchers, artists, scientists, and architects, who presented new hypotheses and ideas over the course of a two-day series of talks.

Christine Abdelnour

Musician, free improvising saxophonist

Dayna Ash

Activist, performing artist, writer

Rayya Badran

Writer, translator, and educator

Tosh Basco

Dancer, photographer

Laurens Bekemans

Architect BC

Grégory Castéra

Curator, co-founder of Council and founding editor of TANJ (The Against Nature Journal)

Julien Creuzet

Artist, video maker, performer and poet

Valérie Disdier

President of Cité anthropocène and Deputy Director of the Lyon Urban School

Jill Falcon Ramaker

Assistant Professor/Director, Buffalo Nations Food System Initiative at Montana State University

Simone Fattal

Artist, poet

Jérôme Gaillardet

Professor of Earth Sciences at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Rémi Grisal

Doctoral student in contemporary history at Aix-Marseille University

Guillaume Habert

Chair of Sustainable Construction and Associate Professor at the ETH Zürich

Joe Halligan

Co-founder of architecture and art collective Assemble

François Hartog

Director of Studies at the EHESS, Director of the Chair of Ancient and Modern Historiography

Christof Mauch

Director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society

Salima Naji

Architect specializing in vernacular, collective construction projects

Sharif Sehnaoui

Musician, free improvising guitarist

Wu Tsang

Filmmaker and visual artist

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

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, and Senior Advisor at LUMA Arles

Precious Okoyomon

Poet and visual artist

Ludovic Orlando

Director of Research at the CNRS, Director of the Anthropobiology and Genomics Center of Toulouse

Uriel Orlow

artist

Grégory Quenet

Professor of Environmental History University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

Filipa Ramos

Writer and curator

Philippe Verdol

Associate Professor of Economics at the University of the West Indies

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