21 November 2024, Parc Rigot, Geneva

“What type of commons can we hope for today?” is a one-day training course led by Alexandre Monnin, philosopher and specialist in ecological redirection, with the aim of reflecting on the “commons”, and particularly negative ones. This training course is part of least’s transdisciplinary processes and is open to professionals in the fields of arts and culture (artists, curators, institutions, etc.) as well as to ecological transition professionals (landscape architects, engineers, biologists, etc.).

We depend for our livelihoods on a social organisation and infrastructure that cannot be maintained indefinitely. The world as we know it now threatens to collapse. While progressive movements dream of a shared world with pooled resources, we are unwillingly inheriting less bucolic, “negative” commons, such as contaminated rivers and soils, polluting industries, supply chains, and digital technologies. What pollutants have we inherited in our professions? What processes and dynamics are having a negative impact on our professions? How can we change direction? Against the modernisation front and its anthropology of project, openness and innovation, we still have to invent an art of closure and dismantling: a form of (anti)ecology that won’t be afraid “to get its hands dirty”. To do this, we will draw inspiration from the commons in Parc Rigot.

9.30am-12.30pm (free access with registration): Based on a mirror reflection on the notion of the commons, positive or negative, we will attempt to revise the portrait that is generally painted of the commons, in order to focus on the importance of heterogeneous practices of “commonisation”.

2pm-6pm (free access with registration): using Parc Rigot as a case study, we will try to understand who the actors are who create commons, including through heterogeneous practices or existences, whether verbal or non-verbal, human or “non-human”. To do this, we will work together to reconstruct their trajectories, the places where they intersect, but also the places where they don’t, the different temporalities and rhythms that govern these encounters or non-encounters and that make the place what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. To take part in the workshop, which will take place partly outdoors, you will need a smartphone or digital camera.

The training day is being organised as part of the Faire Commun – Évaluation Collective et Sensible des Communs de Rigot research project and is part of the least research and education programme.

Practical information

The day is divided into a presentation in the morning and a workshop in the afternoon. You can attend one or both sessions. Register by e-mail at production@least.eco.

Villa Rigot, Parc Rigot
Av. de la Paix 9
1202 Geneva
21 November 2024, 9.30am-12.30pm & 2pm-6pm
Free access with registration