In November 2023, the Fondation des États-Unis (FEU) created Art for Nature, a series of three events inviting the artists and the audience to reflect upon and discuss climate change, as well as the importance of our connection with nature and community. Perhaps, the events may even inspire some changes in how we live and consume. The Grand Salon, located at the heart of the FEU, overlooks the garden and Cité internationale universitaire de Paris‘ (CiuP) eco-campus, where thousands of students live together in a microcosm of the world, in which strong values – including respect for the environment – are foundational.
The series started with Arbre [Tree] on November 2nd, a performance concluding a week-long intensive Big DbD Workshop and Nathalie Broizat‘s 8 years of artistic residency at the FEU with her company Love Labo. Arbre was inspired by the social behavior of trees and the intelligence of their ecosystem; they prove how much easier life is when one is connected to others with their differences, creating a healthy and safe living environment.
Art for Climate — an exhibition about humankind’s relationship with nature — took place in the Balcony throughout the month of November 2023. With the threat of the climate crisis ever-looming, eight artists showed works that reflect upon human impact on global warming, the responsibility we have in taking care of our planet, and the catastrophic implications if we do not.
Ending the Art for Nature series, ensemble IMAGO — in artistic residency at FEU — presented La Nature Mystique, a program based on the elements and an invitation to reconnect with nature through music. With its heavenly acoustics, enriched by the sound of the birdsong echoing from the FEU garden, the Grand Salon hosted an otherworldly concert specially conceived by IMAGO. Inspired by the mysticism of nature and by 8th century Japanese poetry, composer Sato Matsui premiered her original creation, “Six Tankas antiques,” interwoven with flute and piano music performed by Thomaz Tavares and Reiko Tsuchida.