On the occasion of this Year of the Sea, the City of Nice and the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis have decided to launch a series of public conferences and meetings. The University of the Ocean will, of course, be at the heart of this program. The institution will offer a journey through art, science, ecology, and society.
As Nice will host in June the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), the municipality and the Metropolis are organizing a series of events throughout the year. The University of the Ocean is part of this dynamic. It offers several events in April aimed at raising awareness among residents about the major challenges related to the Ocean.
The first meeting is on Tuesday, April 15 at L’Artistique. Jean-Philippe Racca Vammerisse, guest artist at the Biennial of Arts and the Ocean, will engage in a discussion around his exhibition The Relics of the Foam, currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts. The artist questions our relationship with marine materials and the traces left by human activity on the coastlines. This encounter marks the launch of a cycle combining visual arts and ecological reflection.
The next day, Wednesday, April 16, the program continues at the Mediterranean University Center (CUM). The Science and Society Chair, supported by the city of Nice, the Metropolis, and the University Côte d’Azur, is organizing a roundtable entitled Economy and Ecology, Two Irreconcilable Ways of Envisioning the Mediterranean Coastline. It will bring together researchers, decision-makers, and citizens. The goal is to question the uses of the coastline in light of ecological transformations. The scientific approach here aims to inform public and individual choices. “Citizen participation, including through the popularization of science, is essential,” the organizers state.
On Tuesday, April 22, the program returns to L’Artistique for a second artistic encounter. Anne-Laure Wullai, an artist exhibiting at the Lascaris Palace, will talk about The Squaring of the Circle. A work developed as part of the Biennial of Arts and the Ocean, which questions the forms and cycles present in marine environments.
A Double Time of Exchange
On April 29, two events will punctuate the day. At 2:30 PM, a roundtable on the Pelagos Sanctuary will bring together the Executive Secretariat of the Pelagos Agreement, the Port-Cros National Park, and the Metropolis. They will discuss the threats facing Mediterranean cetaceans. “Cetaceans face multiple threats: collisions with ships, chemical and plastic pollution, climate change, noise pollution…” Established in 1999, this sanctuary is a marine protected area shared between France, Italy, and Monaco.
On the same day at 6 PM, glaciologist Heidi Sevestre will speak at L’Artistique. Her conference The Arctic, Eldorado or Sanctuary? will focus on the upheavals of the Arctic Ocean. She will address the extreme conditions in which marine organisms live, as well as the effects of climate change on this polar region. This event is part of the cycle Giving Voice to the Ocean, co-organized by MAMAC, the Tara Ocean Foundation, and L’Artistique.
The final appointment of the month: Wednesday, April 30 at 4 PM, at CUM. Photographer Ferrante Ferranti will offer a conference around the Sea of Homer. A dive into the stories of Antiquity. “Fracture between two shores in the Iliad, a theater of wandering in the Odyssey…” He will also evoke the colors of the Mediterranean, between “rosy-fingered dawns” and “wine-dark twilights.”
In parallel, a haiku writing session will take place on Saturday, April 26 at the Port Library. Organized by the Ars Legendi company, it will invite participants to write their own vision of the sea based on their memories and representations.
This varied program, accessible to all, opens spaces for dialogue between art, science, and society. It is part of a collective desire to prepare for the debates that will accompany the United Nations Ocean Conference.