Contemporary arts and anthropocene

The "Contemporary Arts & Anthropocene" project is based on the collaboration of several institutions linked to the ARTS Project (College of Art and Design, College of Architecture, Cité du Design, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Eclla Research Unit, École Urbaine de Lyon (Uban School of Lyon), Labex IMU - and international partners, University of Genoa, Lieven Gevaert Centre for Photography, Art and Visual Culture (Catholic University of Leuven/University of Leuven).

The research programme, led by Danièle Méaux, aims to examine the ways in which works of contemporary art - be they plastic, photographic, cinematographic or literary - think about the changes in the world that determine the growing use of the term "anthropocene" today. Far from artworks that reflect a romantic fascination for a nature close to its original state or productions designated as "ecological art", the aim is to take into consideration and analyse artworks that work to problematise the changes in our lifestyles and the civilisational crisis we are going through. It is thus the way in which art can become a specific tool for understanding and analysing the dysfunctions of today's world that is studied.

This project is punctuated by :

• An international symposium on 13, 14 and 15 October 2021 (replay);
• The exhibition "Matières précieuses", curated by Stéphane Le Mercier, at the College of Art and Design, during October-November 2021;
• A cycle of interviews with artists including a meeting with Mathieu Asselin (May the 26th 2021), a meeting with Julien Guinand (replay).
• A regular column on the site of the Urban School of Lyon;
• The publication of the conference proceedings by Hermann Editions in 2022.

^{(c) Julien Guinand}

Contact : Danièle Méaux (daniele.meaux @ univ-st-etienne.fr)