As part of the nocturnal research laboratory on participation in public space Que peut la Nuit, conducted by Collectif Impatience, we have happy to welcome Joëlle Zask who will give a conference at La Bellone.

It will focus on the relationship between public space, participation and artistic practices, and will be facilitated by Giulietta Laki et Rafaella Houlstan-Hasaerts from the research-action collective Urban Species.

Together, they will explore the notion of participation, particularly in the context of artistic projects. Participation seems to imply external initiation by the person leading the project, but how can we defuse the power that can arise from this initiation? What posture does the artist take in this context? What place does hospitality have in participatory projects? What are the political impacts of these participatory projects?

Joëlle Zask

Joëlle Zask is one of the leading thinkers on public space in the French-speaking world. She is a French philosopher specialised in political philosophy and pragmatism. She is a lecturer at the University of Aix-Marseille and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She wrote her thesis on the philosopher John Dewey. She has translated his most important works, making them accessible in French.

She is one of the leading thinkers on participatory democracy, seeing participation as a combination of taking part, contributing a share and receiving a share. She approaches democracy in terms of a political culture and not just a type of government. The notion of self-government, whether individual or communal, is central to her thinking. In 2011, she published Participer. Essai sur les formes démocratiques de la participation.

She also considers the political issues of contemporary artistic practices, particularly artistic practices in public space, with her works Art et démocratie : Les peuples de l'art (2003) and Outdoor Art. Sculpture and its Places (2013).

She has recently turned her attention to issues relating to the ecological crisis, notably in her essay Quand la forêt brûle. Penser la nouvelle catastrophe écologique (2019), which analyses human responsibility in megafires, and Écologie et démocratie (2022), which closely links these two concepts.

Outdoor Art, is being reissued and will be released on 27 February 2025 under the title L'art au grand air, published by Éditions Premier Parallèle.

Urban Species

Urban Species is an interdisciplinary research-action collective that brings together researchers in the social sciences, architecture and design. Its research focuses on urban participation, using inventive and speculative methods. As part of its experiments, Urban Species works with citizens, associations and public authorities, as well as developers, designers and a whole range of species, human and non-human, living and digital. Together, they design and prototype participatory frameworks that bridge the gap between scientific research and grassroots practice.

Practical information

Date and time

10 March

18:00 > 20:00

Place

La Bellone - Rue de Flandre 46, 1000 Brussels

Access

Free and on registration: write to cifas@cifas.be

The conference will be in French translated to English.

Conference at ULB

The day after her conference at La Bellone, on 11 March at 18:00, Joëlle Zask will give a conference at ULB in the context of the research laboratory Les pragmatiques de la terre.

To know more → this way