The fundamental shift in the way mankind perceives and views its position in the world has earmarks of a new “Renaissance” according to Guillaume Logé. He observes many parallels with that of the fifteenth century, interpreted as a transhistorical phenomenon, in particular through artworks which have a symbiotic perspective that move beyond the modern monofocal perspective, or humans. More than the Anthropocene, he considers that the idea of the wild is the new frame of reference that will replace the great narratives, which disappeared with postmodernity. By leaving behind the human perspective and moving on to collaborations with the living, he calls into question our separation from it. He therefore views contemporary artists as moving ahead in the experimentation of the relational dimension within the turning point we are living through.
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Yona Friedman granted us one of his last interviews before passing away in December 2019. In this unpublished video, he questions centralization and urban density and envisions the future as the establishment of a diffuse “global city,” a position that resonates deeply in the present context.
While the evolution of our relationships with the living and the environment has long been at the core of the thinking and practices of philosophy and contemporary art, it has taken an unusually long time to emerge in the field of architecture. The researcher and teacher in the field of architecture Léa Mosconi studies the context and history of the French architectural scene’s growing ecological awareness, from its pioneers to its contemporary developments. She has discovered the construction of a narrative, the “ecological narrative,” that offers a vision that is so much more complete than simple notions of energy transition or environmental crisis. It is not simply a question of providing practical responses to these issues, but of modifying our understanding of the world, of questioning our relationship with the living, and of finding ways of being benevolent that allow new links to be created between inhabitants and their surroundings, whether natural or anthropized.
Larissa Fassler is a “Neo-Situationist” artist. By exploring places over the course of many hours, she gleans their ephemeral essence, which she then superimposes on the fixed urban master plan. The subjective maps thus generated highlight both urban narratives and history.