Warming up history: an essay in multi-species history

With Vinciane Despret, philosopher of science
Moderator: Eric Giraud (Opera Mundi)

Free admission on reservation 

Belgian philosopher Vinciane Despret gives an exceptional lecture on the long-standing and complex interdependencies between “living beings other than humans” and our species.

At the crossroads of philosophy, ethology and psychology, Vinciane Despret’s reflections invite us to sensitively rethink our alliances with the living world, and to appreciate both what animals are and the importance of their presence.

For the philosopher, non-human living beings have long been the great absentees when it comes to making history. To us – or more precisely, to some of us – the warm, creative and eventful history, to them the cold, slow history of evolution without any real invention.

How can we give them a place and a role other than that of extras in “our history”?
How can we give historical status to those who fed us, who worked with us or for us, who made the earth habitable – the very people we sometimes fought against?

Over the past two decades, a growing body of work has taken into account the extremely important role of animals associated with us in exciting and complicated interdependent relationships. Spurred on by historians, this movement is part of and bears witness to a perceptible transformation in the ways in which we consider and represent animals.

For the past thirty years, Vinciane Despret has been an active participant in this renewal of thought on the ecology of relationships with living beings. Connected to the work of Isabelle Stengers, Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway, her abundant and original reflections articulate narrative, fiction and speculative narration. The Belgian philosopher invites us to “take a step to the side”, shifting our certainties and imagining new ways of creating a shared world.
Curator of the “Bêtes et hommes” exhibition at the Cité des sciences in 2007, Vinciane Despret was named “intellectual of the year” by the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2021. Her books have been translated all over the world and received numerous awards.

Lecture followed by an Apero Mundi, a time for discussion with the audience.

A partnership between Opera Mundi and Mucem, with the support of the Consulate General of Belgium in Marseille and Wallonie – Bruxelles International.

As part of Opera Mundi’s 2024-2025 season and its festival “Opera Mundi 10 ans : Repenser nos interdépendances” (January 27 – February 1, 2025) and season 4 of Les Procès du siècle at the Mucem: “Oser l’utopie” (November 18, 2024 – March 17, 2025)