Fondation Thalie and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris join forces for the 3rd season of “Creators facing Climate Emergency” and invite visual artist Irene Kopelman in dialogue with sociologist Richard Sennett to address the topic of “Cooperating with the living”.
Launched in 2020 by the Fondation Thalie’s founder Nathalie Guiot, the series of conversations Creators facing climate emergency calls upon the creative vision of the artist to imagine alternative futures and to reveal scientific facts through sensory experiences that involve collaboration with scientists and to foster greater knowledge-sharing between these two disciplines.
The full series of conversations is now available as an audio podcast!
Wednesday 30 November, 6pm-7:30 pm (École des Arts Décoratifs)
Guests: Irene Kopelman, artist and Richard Sennett, sociologist.
Co-moderated by Stefano Vendramin, curator of the programme “Creators facing Climate Emergency” and Anna Bernagozzi, teacher of History and Theory of Design, École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
“We cooperate to accomplish what we cannot do alone,” writes Richard Sennett, sociologist, author and professor at MIT, Columbia University and the LSE. This statement describes equally well the approach of the Argentinian artist Irene Kopelman, who is currently the subject of an exhibition at MAMAC (Nice), whose artistic practice is underpinned by a long-term engagement with scientists and their subjects, ranging from forests to bacteria.
More generally, cooperation, a subject in which Richard Sennett is a specialist, has long played a crucial role in the survival of our species. However, the consequences of the Anthropocene on our planetary resources are now forcing us all to cooperate in unprecedented ways, not only among ourselves, across disciplines and borders, but also with the other species around us. This conversation looks at cooperation as a fundamental tool in the face of our changing climate, through the prism of the relationship between Art and Science.
The guests
Irene Kopelman (born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1974), lives and works between Amsterdam and Argentina. Fascinated by the cabinets of curiosity and the representation of landscapes by naturalists in the 18th and 19th centuries, she questions this period of exploration and construction of knowledge on natural phenomena. She has carried out numerous research residencies in collaboration with natural history museums, geological collections (London, Amsterdam) or nature parks (Hawaii). Her research is embodied in drawings, paintings, texts, editions and installations that evoke fragile ecosystems.
Recent projects include “Quaternary Unfolded”, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris (2021); “A tiny world and countless compositions in it”, Kranenburg, Bergen, Netherlands (2020); “On Yellows”, MAMM, Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin, Colombia, CO (2020); “Cardinal Points” Museo Emilio Caraffa, Cordoba, AR 2018; “Irene Kopelman”, MAMAC, Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice (2018); “Cardinal Points”, Museo de Arte Latinoamericana, Buenos Aires (2018); “Indexing Water”, Kunsthalle Lissabon (2017); “Campamento de Dibujo”, Parc National Quebrada del Condorito, Cordoue (2017); SITE International Biennial of Santa Fe, N.M. (2014); “Vertical Landscape”, 8th Berlin Biennial of Art, Berlin (2014).
Richard Sennett currently serves as Chair of the UN Habitat Urban Initiatives Group. He is Senior Fellow at the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University and Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at MIT.
Previously, he founded the New York Institute for the Humanities, taught at New York University and at the London School of Economics, and served as President of the American Council on Work.
Over the course of the last five decades, he has written about social life in cities, changes in labour, and social theory. His books include The Hidden Injuries of Class, The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, The Culture of the New Capitalism, The Craftsman, and Building and Dwelling. Among other awards, he has received the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize, an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, and the Centennial Medal from Harvard University. Richard Sennett grew up in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. He attended the Julliard School in New York, where he worked with Claus Adam, cellist of the Julliard Quartet. He then studied social relations at Harvard, working with David Riesman, and independently with Hannah Arendt.
Practical information
English speaking conversation form 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm followed by a convivial exchange with the speakers.
École des Arts Décoratifs, 31 rue d’Ulm 75005 Paris
Based on a curatorial proposal by Fondation Thalie, this third season hosted at the École des Arts Décoratifs is organised by Stefano Vendramin, curator of the programme “Creators facing Climate Emergency”, in co-construction with Francesca Cozzolino, teacher in human and social sciences, and Patrick Laffont-DeLojo, teacher in stage design at the École des Arts Décoratifs.
In partnership with the École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
