Thu 26 September
19:30–22:00
Lecture Estelle Zhong Mengual

Plants, animals and other organisms form a living world with which we are interwoven, but in our culture they seem to be no more than a simple backdrop to our existence.

On Thursday the 26th of September, RADIUS has the pleasure of welcoming art historian Estelle Zhong Mengual who will deliver a lecture on her research, departing from her recently published book Apprendre à Voir (Leren Kijken). 

In Apprendre à Voir, Estelle Zhong Mengual takes nineteenth-century landscape painting and natural history as a starting point for how we can better perceive the living world. During this period, ideas about the living world were radically changed by Darwin’s theory of evolution, and this can be observed in the paintings of Albert Bierstadt and Martin Johnson Heade and in the natural history research of Arabella Buckley and Frances Theodora Parsons.

Zhong Mengual follows the trail of painters and botanists who, influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, have an eye for the individuality as well as the coherence of living beings, and try to pass that on to us. Instead of an uninhabited setting, we see an overpopulated habitat, the anonymity of living beings gives way to their history, and we become familiar with other forms of life.

That sensitivity is important. The ecological crisis we find ourselves in is also a crisis of our sensitivity to the relationship with the living world. To enrich the culture of the living, a first step is to learn to see.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Estelle Zhong Mengual (1989) is a French art historian. She received her doctorate from Sciences Po in Paris, where she taught for six years at the Master's in art and politics, founded by Bruno Latour. She is now in charge of a chair at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, titled “Inhabiting the landscape”. Zhong Mengual’s research revolves around our perception of the living world—past and present. In particular, she works on the development of an art history based on humanities, environmental and natural sciences. In 2023, she co-created with choreographer Jérôme Bel a piece titled “Non human dances” which premiered at the Louvre Museum. She is the author of several books. The Dutch translation of her book Apprendre à Voir (Leren Kijken) was recently published with Octavo Publicaties.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
⌀ Date: Thursday 26 september 2024
⌀ Doors open: 19:30 – 20:00
⌀ Start and duration lecture: 20:00 – 21:15
⌀ Drinks reception and opportunity to purchase/sign publication: 21:15 – 22:00
⌀ Admission: €7,50 (lecture), €12,50 (lecture + exhibition)
⌀ The exhibition FEMKE HERREGRAVEN: DIALECT can be visited on 26 September between 11:00 and 19:30
⌀ Main language: English
⌀ Location: RADIUS Water Tower, Kalverbos 22
⌀ Please note that the location is not wheelchair accessible