JOURNÉE PAROLES ET MANŒUVRES: COLLAPSE, THEN WHAT?

November 3rd 2018, 2:00 pm

Journée Paroles et Manœuvres

In a spirit of exchange and reflection, Skol invites the public to participate in Journées Paroles et Manœuvres, a cross-disciplinary meeting of interventions, conferences, performances, and discussions. This event aims to inverse roles, to encourage collaboration between different types of expertise, and to support hybrid forms of communication. Journées Paroles et Manœuvres is an opportunity to take time, together, through various forms and ideas.

Collapse, then what?

This collaborative event includes a talk, videos, performances, and music. Given that the environmental crisis is undeniable and that catastrophist discourse has become commonplace in both the popular imagination and academic circles, can we bring an “operational optimism*” to bear in imagining the world to come?

“Only he who has the courage to be absolutely negative has also the power to create something new.” (Ludwig Feuerbach, 1842)

* term taken from Harvey L. Mead (2017). Trop tard : La fin d’un monde et le début d’un nouveau,(It’s too late: The end of one world and the beginning of another), Écosociété.

PROGRAM**

-2:00:  Video by Alison Nguyen (score by Roarke Menzies): you can’t plan a perfect day sometimes it just happens, 8 min. 24 sec. 2017.

The piece critiques and eerily meditates on visual codes for authenticity and spirituality used in publicity and mass media.

-2:30: Conference (in French) by Harvey L. Mead: Trop tard : La fin d’un monde et le début d’un nouveau (Too Late: The end of a world and the beginning of a new one).

It is too late to preserve life as we know it. Too late, also, for sustainable development. That is the statement that environmental scene veteran Harvey L. Mead puts forward. Refusing to adopt a sterile pessimistic posture, Mead proposes an operational optimism to fight the surrounding ideological inertia, convinced that we have no other choice: either we change our system with a massive communitarian effort, or this system will collapse under the weight of our excesses, whether they are economical, sociological or ecological.

BREAK

-3:30: Video by Muriel Angulo : Para Pablo, 3 min. 19 sec. 2006. 

When, at such a convulsed moment, the birth of a child raises disturbing questions.

 –3:45: Speech and chant by Sedalia KawennoLta’s Fazio (Idle No More).

“Idle No More calls on all people to join in a peaceful revolution, to honour Indigenous sovereignty, and to protect the land and water”.

-4:00: Eatable cricket farming workshop by Emilio Hernandez, in coll. with Ileana Hernandez et Michael Jachner.

Learn to breed your own high protein sustainable food!

**Please note that the schedule is approximate and may vary by a few minutes

Photo: Guy L’heureux, detail of dusk, ardor by Marigold Santos, 2009-2010.