On October 16, Soumya Sankar Bose, resident of the Arts, Societies and Contemporary Mutations 2024-2025 Chair, gave his inaugural lecture at the École des Beaux-Arts de Nantes-Saint-Nazaire. This chair is a partnership between the City of Nantes, the Lieu Unique, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Nantes-Saint-Nazaire and the Institut d'études avancées.
Diego Landivar, resident of the Living within Planetary Limits Chair, attended the event. Here are his thoughts on a conference that touched us all deeply.
“Incredible inaugural lecture! Soumya's work is akin to investigating places, events or memories that have no archives. His photographs then go on to invent them: to create the past when it doesn't exist, when documents are lacking or memorial supports are lacking, ... In this way, the world's possibilities are no longer linked solely to the multiplication of futures, but to how we can assume the right to invent a past in complete tranquillity. The result is a way of thinking that no longer depends on history and its methods. For all that, the archives created in this way are not purely fictional inventions, but true intimate, autobiographical and social explorations. This is surely one of the most astonishing decolonial options I've seen in recent times. Superb! ”
Diego Landivar
