Brain Space Laboratory, Cycle “Towards a Cosmomorphic World”, Station 11 “Living Forms, From Cosmos to Earth”

Brain Space Laboratory, Cycle “Towards a Cosmomorphic World,” Station 11 “Living Forms, From Cosmos to Earth”
Study day, lecture & talks at Centre Pompidou-Metz on the occasion of the exhibition Infinite Garden. From Giverny to Amazonia 

Co-founded in 2009 by artist Ann Veronica Janssens and Nathalie Ergino, director of the Institute for Contemporary Art (IAC), the Brain Space Laboratory explores practical and theoretical research connecting space, time, body and brain, by bringing together artists and researchers in neurosciences, astrophysics, biology, geology, art history and philosophy.

For the cycle entitled “Towards a Cosmomorphic World,” launched in November 2016, the Laboratory is expanding its field of exploration to the organic connections uniting humanity to the cosmos, looking for alternative conceptions to anthropocentrism.

How can creation and research contribute today to this change in paradigm and establish a new way of looking at the world? Could a common responsability, shared by artists, scientists and intellectuals, pave the way for alternative actions?

On the occasion of the exhibition Infinite Garden. From Giverny to Amazonia currently at Centre Pompidou-Metz, station 11 of the Laboratory is dedicated to the theme “Living Forms, From Cosmos to Earth” [Le vivant, du cosmos à la Terre]. The program will consist of: 

A study day:
Friday, June 30, 2–5pm at the Studio of Centre Pompidou-Metz

Discussion between participants and guests on the basis of a selection of artworks of the exhibition Infinite Garden with the participation of the curators Emma Lavigne and Hélène Meisel 

A lecture and talks:
Friday, June 30, 6:30–8pm at the Auditorium Wendel of Centre Pompidou-Metz

with Pierre Montebello, Abderrazak El Albani, Emanuele Coccia, Michel Viso and Nathalie Ergino

Works under study:
Artworks from the exhibition Infinite Garden. From Giverny to Amazonia presented from March 18 to August 28, 2017 at Centre Pompidou-Metz. Curators: Emma Lavigne and Hélène Meisel from Centre Pompidou-Metz

Guests:

Abderrazak El Albani, doctor of geology and sedimentary geochemistry, professor at Institut de chimie des milieux et matériaux, University of Poitiers, directs a group on primitive organic material and paleontological environments
Emanuele Coccia, philosopher, lecturer at l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), author of La vie des plantes une métaphysique du mélange
Michel Viso, exobiologist at the Observatoire de l’Espace, the art-science laboratory of the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES)

Participants:

Pierre Montebello, philosopher, modern and contemporary philosophy professor at University of Toulouse, author of Métaphysiques cosmomorphes, la fin du monde humain
Denis Cerclet, antropologist, lecturer at Université Lumière Lyon 2
Arnauld Pierre, art historian, professor at Université Paris IV-Sorbonne
Cyrille Noirjean, director of URDLA (International center estampe & book), psychoanalyst (member of the International Lacanian Association)
Jean-Louis Poitevin, doctor of philosophy, writer and art critic
Alexandre Wajnberg, scientist journalist at the RTBF (Journal parlé de Radio Une, Bruxelles)

and the artists:
Clarissa Baumann, Benjamin Blaquart, FRAME (Alys Demeure, Jérôme Grivel, Héloïse Lauraire, Sandra Lorenzi, Stéphanie Raimondi), Célia Gondol, Lola Gonzàlez, Linda Sanchez, Vahan Soghomonian, Floryan Varennes, Mengzhi Zheng

Initiators of the Space Brain Laboratory: 

Ann Veronica Janssens, artist
Nathalie Ergino, director of the Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes