CIRCUL’ARTS: practices, critical and alternative barometers for urban sustainability

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DATE

29 Aug 2025

AUTHOR

Umbigo

CIRCUL’ARTS: practices, critical and alternative barometers for urban sustainability

AUTHOR

Umbigo

Between 8 and 11 September 2025, Paris will host an international meeting that brings together art practices and critical pedagogy, as part of CIRCUL’ARTS, a European project (Cost Action) curated by Marta Jacu. For four years, between 2024 and 2028, the programme will bring together researchers, artists and cultural agents in a network that seeks to translate and expand the meanings of circularity and sustainability in urban contexts, particularly from the socio-ecological perspectives and contexts of Latin America and the African continent.

During the first three days, from 8 to 10 September, from 10 am to 5:30 pm, a series of conferences and round tables will be held at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH), as well as a training school with guest experts, namely Carlos Alberto Torres (Argentina), renowned sociologist of education and founder of the Paulo Freire Institute, decolonial theorist and activist Françoise Vergès (France), and Carina Guimarães Moreira with Carlos Henrique Aurélio dos Santos (Brazil), members of the Fuzuê Collective and researchers of the performing arts in their intersections with historical politics and expressions of Afro-Brazilian cultures.

On the last day, 11 September, at the Maison de l'Amérique Latine from 9 am to 12 pm, a film screening will be held, attended by directors from 1 pm to 6 pm. The series of screenings presents artistic research that explores sustainable urban interventions and forms of ecological and intersectional activism, such as the community empowerment strategies developed in Bogotá by Arquitectura Expandida, as well as the international urban activism of Left Hand Rotation. Rosell Meseguer investigates extractivism in Latin America, adopting the point of view of the mineral kingdom. The films by Gustavo Caboco, Maurice Dubroca, and Bianca Dacosta denote a commitment to defending indigenous ecologies and ontoepistemological systems in Brazil. Other works adopt experimental and empathetic approaches (Vincent Voillat) or are embedded in multimedia research structures (Paulo Tavares), curious about the non-human world and interspecies dependencies — sometimes even preceding human temporality (Capucine Vever, Luis Cyprien Rials). The films by Ghanaian writer and curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Angolan artist Sofia Yala, and French artist Capucine Vever address the transmission of ancestral knowledge and the affirmation of cultural identity in various African cultures.

In short, the CIRCUL'ARTS project aims to open up a space for imagination and action based on memory, community knowledge and collective creativity.

The complete list of leaders involved, as well as the detailed programme, can be found here.

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