EUROPEAN ALTER-PLACES SYMPOSIUM
Exploring eco-practices for sustainable alternative cultural places

14 December 2023 at La Station - Gare des Mines, Paris
&
15 December 2023 at Centre des Colloques, Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers

ALTER-PLACES explores the value and contribution of sustainable practices implemented by European Alternative Cultural Places (ACPs) in the development of green, fair and diverse urban ecosystems.

Hybrid two days event gathering key speakers, panels, research project presentations, workshops, installations, performances.

The symposium is based on and inspired by Guattari’s concept of ecosophy which argues that ecological transition requires a new type of ethico-political articulation between environmental ecology, social, and human subjectivity.

Topics & Objectives

In a global context affected by multiple crises (climatic, sanitary, social, identity-related, etc.), alternative cultural places play a key role through more modest and cooperative ways by generating original and sustainable solutions driven by the engagement of artists and creative practitioners.

However, the practices developed, the value and knowledge produced remain embedded as tacit knowledge that need to be documented and transferred. ALTER-PLACES symposium has the ambition to explore the innovative sustainable practices developed by ACPs and evaluate their role in urban resilience and that of the cultural and artistic sector.

From a more critical perspective, it is paramount to examine and reveal the obstacles and tensions encountered by ACPs to implement valuable and ecological practices. In a context where alternative cultural places are already struggling to ensure the sustainability of their activities and the occupation of spaces, how can they become SUSTAIN-ABLE, i.e. capable of actively supporting the ecological transition?

Over these two days, conferences, panels and workshops will bring together professionals and researchers to clarify this vision and outline practical perspectives on key issues such as:
How to create a favourable ecosystem for the transfer of tacit knowledge developed by alternative cultural places and more institutional venues?
How to overcome the existing tensions between the desire to create sustainable models and the pursuit of more engaged practices?
How can public authorities act to support and sustain the ecological processes implemented by these places?

Symposium organised by LabEx ICCA, La Station - Gare des Mines, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord.

• 09:00 am - 9:30 am
Welcoming breakfast & Opening Day 1

• 09:30 am - 10:30 am : Art as conversations on other possible worlds ?
Key Speaker - Philippe Mairesse : lecturer and researcher at the CEREFIGE-Université de Lorraine, and member of the UNESCO chair named "Arts and Sciences in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals" at ICN. He is interested in issues of organisational aesthetics, collaboration, collective intelligence, emancipatory work, public management, the fictionalisation of reality, epistemology and social ontology, from a sustainability perspective.

• 10:45 am - 12:00 am : Implementing ecological transition in artistic programming : barriers and perspectives
Discussion with La Station, Mocvara, NGBG, Urban Spree, IZOLYATSIA, LabEx ICCA, Trans Europe Halles

• 12:00 am - 01:00 pm
Lunch at Station Nord

• 01:00 pm - 03:00 pm : Capturing ecological & sustainable practices at La Station - Gare des Mines
Workshop with Ilona Touchard and Natalia Bobadilla (LabEx ICCA) - a guided visit of Station Nord’s ecosystem by MU teams (visual arts and garden), Coucou Crew, Activ’18, A+1 and Atelier Piccolo

• 03:15 pm - 05:15 pm
Defining sustainable practices in alternative cultural places (20 people maximum)
Workshop with Laurine Schott (SLAU Design Studio, Collectif 17h25)
&
Discovering Gare des Mines neighbourhood in transition
Soundwalk with Jeanne Robet and Olivier Le Gal (La Station)

• 05:30 pm - 06:00 pm : Mundania
Performance by Robert Willim : Artist and Associate Professor in Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University

• 06:00 pm - 6:30 pm : HUM!
Sound installation by Marina Pirot and Dominique Leroy (Kerminy)

• 06:30 pm - 08:00 pm
Cocktail

• 09:00 am - 9:15 am
Welcoming breakfast & Opening Day 2

• 09:15 am - 10:00 am : Arts, Ecologies, Transitions : Constructing a Common Vocabulary
The book Arts, Ecologies, Transitions provides in-depth insights into how aesthetic relations and current artistic practices are fundamentally ecological and intrinsically connected to the world.
Cécile Sorin, Professor in the Department of Cinema at Université Paris 8. She is currently examining processes of subjectivation in Pasolinian cinema and contemporary French cinema. Her recent work reassesses Pasolini’s work through the prism of ecopoetics. In addition, she is co-editor of the “Esthétiques hors cadre” series from Presses Universitaires de Vincennes.
Makis Solomos, Professor of Musicology at Université Paris 8 and Director of the research unit MUSIDANSE. His main areas of research are the focus on sound, the notion of musical space, new musical technics and technologies, the mutations of listening, and the ecology of sound. His latest book Towards an Ecology of Sound: Environmental, Mental and Social Ecologies in Music, Sound Art and Artivisms addresses an expanded notion of ecology, mixing environmental issues and socio-political questions.

• 10:15 am - 11:00 am : The contribution of arts to Earth’s habitability
Key Speaker #1 - Nathalie Blanc : Research Director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Director of the Center for Earth Politics and is based at the University of Paris. A pioneer of ecocriticism in France, she has published and coordinated research programs on areas including habitability, environmental aesthetics, literature & environment and nature in the city.

• 11:15 am - 12:45 am : Ecological practices in cultural places : exploring bridges, needs and obstacles
Panel #1 : Animated by Laura Aufrère, PhD student at Université Sorbonne Paris Nord and coordinator of La Main
Lucie Marinier, Professor and Holder of the Chair Cultural and Creative Engineering at CNAM (national conservatory of arts and crafts)
Tiffany Fukuma, managing director of Trans Europe Halles cultural network
Laure Hubert-Rodier, in charge of administration and projects at UFISC (Federal Union for Cultural Structures Intervention).
Eva Daviaud, foresight and social innovation manager at Center Pompidou.
Zuzana Ernst, co artistic manager of Brunnenpassage and co-founder the D/Arts project office for diversity and urban dialogue
Ana Sofia Acosta Alvarado, PhD student in economics at the Economic Centre of the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord. Her research focuses on the relationship between the commons, democracy, economics and governance.

• 02:00 pm - 02:45 pm : Harvesting Hope: Exploring Solarpunk Cities as an epoch of Post-Capitalist Possibilities
Key Speaker #2 - Oli Mould : British lecturer in human geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. His academic research, and his writing, focuses on the role of urban creativity, activism and politics. He has written 3 books (including Against Creativity (2018) and Seven Ethics Against Capitalism (2021)) and numerous articles for The Conversation, Tribune, Jacobin and OpenDemocracy.

• 03:00 pm - 04:30 pm : The role of alternative cultural places for sustainable cities
Panel #2 : Animated by Jedediah Sklower, post-doctoral researcher at LabEx ICCA and member of IRMECCEN. He has published/edited several books on the relationship between music and politics.
Marion Waller, director of Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Paris urban and architecture centre, since 2023.
Per-Johan Dahl, architect and Associate Professor at Lund University, Head of Department of Architecture and the Built Environment (Sweden).
Nancy Duxbury, senior researcher at Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra (Portugal) where she is coordinator of the thematic research line "Urban Cultures, Sociabilities, and Participation".
Liene Jurgelane, coordinator of international relations and developing a project dedicated to exploring different ecology-related topics called “re:connect” at Institut for (X)
Juliette Bompoint, project developer at Trans Europe Halles. She was the director of Périféeries2028 and co-founder of La Main.

• 04:45 pm - 05:30 pm : Cultural places as spaces of possibilities for sustainability and as iridescent spaces of potentiality
Key Speaker #3 - Sacha Kagan : “Privatdozent” at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Studies of Leuphana University Lueneburg and PI of an ongoing DFG-funded research project at The Center for World Music of the University of Hildesheim (Germany). He coordinated the “Research Network: Sociology of the Arts” at the European Sociological Association (2015 to 2017) and the network “Cultura21 International: Cultural Fieldworks for Sustainability” (2005 to 2016).

• 06:00 pm - 08:00 pm
Cocktail

• From 09:00 pm : Magnétique Nord
Concert at La Station - Gare des Mines