Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In 2008, as the storms of the financial crash blew, Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay Jordan deserted the metropolis and their academic jobs, traveling across Europe in search of post-capitalist utopias. They wanted their art activism to no longer be uprooted.
They arrived at a place that French politicians had declared lost to the republic, otherwise known as the ZAD (the zone to defend): a messy but extraordinary canvas of commoning, illegally occupying 4,000 acres of wetlands where an international airport was planned. In 2018, the 40-year-long struggle snatched an incredible victory, defeating the airport expansion project through a powerful cocktail that merged creation and resistance. … It was not the end of the adventure.
In this talk, Fremeaux and Jordan blend rich eyewitness accounts with theory, inspired by a diverse array of approaches, from neo-animism to revolutionary biology, insurrectionary writings and radical art history. They tell stories of the creative direct action that merged within the ZAD and show ways to radically transform art, activism and everyday life in the midst of the horrors of the Capitalocene.
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To find out more about Conway Hall and its events, to become a member or to donate: conwayhall.org.uk • Please subscribe to our channel, too.
Conway Hall hosts a wide variety of talks, concerts, exhibitions, courses, performances, community and social events. It is also renowned as a hub for free speech and independent thought, hosting suffragettes, political radicals, scientists, philosophers, artists, performers; campaign, charities and other non- profit organisations.
In 2008, as the storms of the financial crash blew, Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay Jordan deserted the metropolis and their academic jobs, traveling across Europe in search of post-capitalist utopias. They wanted their art activism to no longer be uprooted.
They arrived at a place that French politicians had declared lost to the republic, otherwise known as the ZAD (the zone to defend): a messy but extraordinary canvas of commoning, illegally occupying 4,000 acres of wetlands where an international airport was planned. In 2018, the 40-year-long struggle snatched an incredible victory, defeating the airport expansion project through a powerful cocktail that merged creation and resistance. … It was not the end of the adventure.
In this talk, Fremeaux and Jordan blend rich eyewitness accounts with theory, inspired by a diverse array of approaches, from neo-animism to revolutionary biology, insurrectionary writings and radical art history. They tell stories of the creative direct action that merged within the ZAD and show ways to radically transform art, activism and everyday life in the midst of the horrors of the Capitalocene.
--
To find out more about Conway Hall and its events, to become a member or to donate: conwayhall.org.uk • Please subscribe to our channel, too.
Conway Hall hosts a wide variety of talks, concerts, exhibitions, courses, performances, community and social events. It is also renowned as a hub for free speech and independent thought, hosting suffragettes, political radicals, scientists, philosophers, artists, performers; campaign, charities and other non- profit organisations.
