Estelle Zhong Mengual

The habitability of the land. A visual investigation

At a time when human extractivist activities are making the Earth a little less habitable every day, art historian Estelle Zhong Mengual invites us to become more attuned to the habitability of the Earth and how it is created. Who makes the world habitable? Is it solely the result of human development, as we often believe? Through a journey through Western landscape painting, Estelle Zhong Mengual embarks on learning to see how life shapes the world for life.

Estelle Zhong Mengual is a French art historian. She received her doctorate from Sciences Po in Paris, where she taught for 6 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". Her research regards our perception of the living world - past and present. In particular, she works on the development of an environmental art history based on environmental humanities and natural sciences. She is the author of several books, including Apprendre à voir. Le point de vue du vivant (Actes Sud, 2021) which has been translated into Dutch and Italian ; andPeindre au corps à corps. Les fleurs et Georgia O'Keeffe (Actes Sud, 2022). In 2023, she co-created with choreographer Jérôme Bel the piece Non human dances which premiered at the Louvre Museum.

This lecture is part of the Environmental Humanities Colloquium (led by Roland Borgards) at the Frankfurt Humanities Center. Please contact us for preparatory materials at: fzhg@em.uni-frankfurt.de