Terrestrische Universität: The Right Uses of Land

Critical Zones | Terrestrische Universität


[12.11.2020]


with Julia Pongratz and Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro


How do we use land? How do we nurture georefuges in the age of
extinction? These questions will be the starting point of our
Terrestrial University, where the voices of climate researcher
Prof. Dr. Julia Pongratz and artist Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro will
meet.


In this dialogue, we will encounter the many ramifications of the
question: how do we use land, and what are the effects of land
use on climate? What land do we live on, and how does climate
change affect it? Are there »right« uses of land, and what kind
of politics do they require? Such questions ask for terrestrial
approaches: entangled within the global and the local, navigating
the planetary scale and local ecosystems. »Becoming terrestrial«,
as the notion of the »Critical Zone« demands, also means knowing
what land we care for, and what shelters we may maintain and
where our refuges are – some more aspects this interdisciplinary
encounter might reflect on.


Julia Pongratz is full professor for Physical Geography and Land
Use Systems at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich. She
studied geography at the LMU and the University of Maryland,
received her PhD from the Max Planck Institute for
Meteorology/University of Hamburg on the early impact of human
activity on climate, and conducted research on geoengineering and
food security at the Carnegie Institution, Department of Global
Ecology, Stanford. Since 2013 she has been leading a research
group at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology on Earth system
modeling and land use effects. She is a member of the Scientific
Steering Committee of the Global Carbon Project and contributes
as author to the latest and upcoming Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).


Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro is an artist, environmental engineer, and
curator. At the crossroads of research, social practice, and
activism, his work develops territory-based strategies that
explore ecologies of care. He is a lecturer at Ecole Centrale
Paris, curator at NA Project since 2012, a researcher at
Unbewitch Finance Lab, a cofounding agent of the art and
permaculture platform Zone Sensible. He co-published »Même si on
pense que c’est foutu« (L’Harmattan, 2017), a book on grassroots
movements and radical ecology. Recent exhibitions and
performances include »Ruines et Futurs« (Partcours Festival,
Dakar), »The School of Mutants« (Oslo Architecture Triennale),
»Rituals to Unbewitch Finance« (Aurillac Festival), »Forum for
Radical Imagination and Environmental Knowledge« (Sorbonne
University). He has had curatorial collaborations with Institut
Kunst (Basel), Technê Institute (Buffalo), Artsadmin (London),
Science Museum (London), documenta (13) (Kassel).