The independent international group Inter-governmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services has concluded that more than one million plant and animal species are currently endangered. Scientists are even invoking the spectre of a sixth mass extinction. Faced with this possibility, governmental institutions often appeal to the rhetoric of resilience. Endowed with a positive aura, this notion is presented as an adaptive force able to help us overcome the inevitable impact of the current crisis. Yet by elevating the resilient individual to \u201chero\u201d status, are we not shirking our obligations to various populations, fauna, and flora? Doesn\u2019t resorting to the concept of resilience then become a convenient smokescreen for neoliberal policy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreements reached at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) and Biodiversity Conference (COP15) have not only highlighted how difficult it is for states to make a firm commitment to reducing GHG emissions, but they have also led us to believe that they might fail to reach their target of transforming 30 percent of the world\u2019s territories into protected areas by 2030. Meeting these targets is crucial, albeit restrictive. The problem is that, up to now, only a small minority of states have been respecting their commitments. Yet this planetary crisis could be turned into an opportunity to imagine the world in other ways. Instead, opportunistic machinations proliferate and new markets are emerging that seek only to profit from climate change. As the artist Jonas Staal reminds us, \u201cWhile liberal climate propaganda argues that ecological collapse is the responsibility of human individuals, rather than extractivist corporations, libertarian climate propaganda considers the climate breakdown as a new resource for geomarkets and interplanetary colonization.\u201d^{2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 2 <\/a> - Excerpt from the synopsis of the documentary essay Climate Propagandas, Video Study<\/em> (2020) by Jonas Staal, accessible online.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$\"onas-Staal_Climatepropaganda\"$

Jonas Staal<\/strong>
Climate Propagandas, Video Study, <\/em>video still, 2020.
Produced by postdocumenta.
Photo: courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Neoliberal ideology posits that the environmental crisis is only a matter of balance, then suggests that technological progress and the economic development associated with it will be the driving forces that will help us to overcome it! First and foremost, this means disregarding the fact that we cannot count ad infinitum on the resilience of millions of people who are already experiencing the devastating violence of severe storms, winds, droughts, and fires, not to mention the refugees forced to move because of floods. It has become clear now that conventional forms of state governance\u200a\u2014\u200acentralized, hierarchical, and subject to the idiocy of capitalism\u200a\u2014\u200aare incapable of re-establishing the planetary balance, since ultimately, they only reaffirm the supposed legitimacy of the existing political and economic order. How else to explain the fact that the Horne Smelter, operated by Glencore Canada, has been able to overexpose the population of Rouyn-Noranda to arsenic openly, with impunity, and with the knowledge of successive governments in Qu\u00e9bec for forty years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Faced with such aberrations, artists and philosophers have chosen to go beyond the simple acknowledgment of disaster and equip themselves with conceptual and legal tools in order to take action against climate crimes committed in both past and present. They first resort to the \u201cradical imaginary,\u201d which, according to philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis\u2019s definition, is a continual process of action and creation that generates new meaning and seeks to transform institutional and state productions.^{3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 3 <\/a> - Cornelius Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Society<\/em>, trans. Kathleen Blamey (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987).<\/span> While neoliberal ideology has hijacked the concept of resilience by using a rhetoric apparently marked with good intentions, the imaginary appears to be a more successful tool for bringing about a radical transformation of the behaviours and actions that have caused the climate crisis. In addition, artists use \u201ctactical realism\u201d as a legal tool. This pragmatic approach is utilized particularly in video games. Realistic conditions are re-created to simulate assemblies, global conferences, or alternative legal proceedings to debate or judge both our inaction and the causes of global warming. Staal and lawyer, activist, and international law professor Radha D\u2019Souza have created a tribunal to prosecute corporations, such as Airbus, ING, and Unilever, as well as the Dutch state, all presumed guilty of environmental crimes. The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes <\/em>(CICC) consists of a large-scale installation governed by the current legal framework in the Netherlands. It was presented in 2021 at Framer Framed, a space dedicated to contemporary art and visual culture in Amsterdam. Four judges oversaw the proceedings at the CICC, as prosecutors, witnesses, and experts presented evidence and arguments for their consideration, in front of the public. Installed on bases, which also functioned as seats, banners depicted extinct animals and plants and ammonite fossils in reference to the epoch when the fossil fuels responsible for climate change were formed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Jonas-Staal_Courtforintergenerationalclimatecrimes\"$

Radha D\u2019Souza & Jonas Staal <\/strong>
Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes<\/em>, 2021.
Produced by Framer Framed, Amsterdam.
Photo: Ruben Hamelink, courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
As Staal and D\u2019Souza summarize, \u201cThe CICC provides evidence of past and present climate crimes by looking at their impact on the here and now, as well as on planetary life in the future.\u201d ^{4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 4 <\/a> - Excerpt from the project description of Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes<\/em>, accessible online.<\/span> The hearings reminded us that we cannot individuate a \u201cright,\u201d especially to property, to the detriment of all other rights, whether they are \u201chuman\u201d or \u201cother-than-human\u201d and whether they concern something that is animate or not, including water. They also raised the intergenerational status of these \u201crights\u201d by pointing out that our current actions or inactions are the heritage that we pass down to future generations.^{5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 5 <\/a> - Radha D\u2019Souza and Jonas Staal, \u201cIntroduction to the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC): A conversation between Radha D\u2019Souza & Jonas Staal,\u201d Errant Journal<\/em>, no. 2 (2021): 44-66, accessible online.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The performative format of the tribunal is not new in art. We need only think of theatre director Milo Rau\u2019s The Congo Tribunal<\/em> (2017). Before judges in Bukavu, Rau brought together lawyers, witnesses, and perpetrators, as well as representatives of the government, the army, rebel groups, and NGOs, real protagonists in the human tragedy that is the Congo War. The tribunal focused on the causes of this barbaric conflict, which is the result, among other things, of the exploitation of raw materials, gold and coltan, by multinational corporations interested in maintaining a status quo in this part of Africa so as to better profit from the growth of one technology industry\u200a\u2014\u200amobile telephones\u200a\u2014\u200ain a global economy.^{6<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 6 <\/a> - A documentary film about the tribunal, directed by Milo Rau, is partly distributed through the platform International Institute of Political Murder. More information on the subject can be found on The Congo Tribunal<\/em> website accessible online.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Milo-Rau_Tribunal-sur-le-Congo\"$ <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Milo-Rau_Tribunal-sur-le-Congo\"$

Milo Rau<\/strong>
Tribunal sur le Congo<\/em>, video stills, 2017.
Photos: courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In collaboration with Sciences Po, a university known for its experimental art and political science program, and concerned about the ecological crisis, philosopher Bruno Latour and historian Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique A\u00eft-Touati staged a \u201cpre-enactment\u201d of COP21 in December 2015, seven months before it was held in Paris. Titled Make It Work\u200a\u2014\u200aLe th\u00e9\u00e2tre des n\u00e9gociations<\/em>,the initiative combined political action and art. It brought together almost two hundred students from around the world with the aim \u201cof playing to understand, playing to act, playing to transform\u201d the rapid decline of climatic conditions around the globe.^{7<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 7 <\/a> - The assembly was held at the Nanterre-Amandiers theatre from May 29 to 31, 2015. See the webpage dedicated to the event, accessible online (our translation).<\/span> Admittedly, this global event had the appearance of a massive game, since it staged deliberations specific to international conferences on climate. Nevertheless, that fact remains that it sparked real debates. It also revealed how difficult it is to represent at these gatherings diverse human communities and even non-human entities, which are just as affected by the complexity of environmental issues.^{8<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 8 <\/a> - Animal rights and the necessity to grant rights to plants were also discussed.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Bruno-Latour-&-Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique-A\u00eft-Touati-Make-it-Work\"$

Bruno Latour & Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique A\u00eft-Touati<\/strong>
Make it Work \u2013 Le th\u00e9\u00e2tre des n\u00e9gociations<\/em>,
Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Nanterre-Amandiers, 2015.
Photos: Martin Argyroglo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Bruno-Latour-&-Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique-A\u00eft-Touati-Make-it-Work\"$ <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Bruno-Latour-&-Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique-A\u00eft-Touati-Make-it-Work\"$ <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The question of \u201cjustice\u201d is central to climate tribunals or assemblies and, at the same time, it involves the issue of human rights, which is also at the core of D\u2019Souza\u2019s research. In her book What\u2019s Wrong with Rights?,<\/em> D\u2019Souza examines the links between human rights, property rights, and liberalism and articulates problems that arise when the concept of rights becomes a fighting and advocacy tool for social and climate justice.^{9<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 9 <\/a> - Radha D\u2019Souza, What\u2019s Wrong with Rights? Social Movements, Law and Liberal Imaginations<\/em> (London: Pluto Press, 2018).<\/span> These links can be traced back to the beginning of capitalism, to the moment when the notion of property replaced that of land and transformed it into a simple \u201ccommodity\u201d that can be bought by an individual or a company. Although previously no one could claim an individual right to buy land, today a multinational corporation can own land in the same way as a farmer can. D\u2019Souza adds that \u201cit\u2019s a fundamental feature of our legal and social system that a corporation is a person like a natural person.\u201d^{10<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 10 <\/a> - Zahra Moloo, \u201cWhat\u2019s Wrong with Rights? Radha D\u2019Souza in Conversation,\u201d Warscapes<\/em>, August 15, 2018, accessible online.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Jonas-Staal_Court-fo-rintergenerational-climate-crimes\"$
Radha D\u2019Souza & Jonas Staal <\/strong>
Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes<\/em>, 2021.
Produced by Framer Framed, Amsterdam.
Photo: Ruben Hamelink, courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In other words, a corporation, defined as a \u201clegal entity,\u201d has equivalent rights to an individual, considered as a \u201cnatural person.\u201d The devil is in the details, since by acquiring land, both become owners of water, forests, and all the natural resources found therein. Wanting to exploit these resources to make their shareholders wealthy, corporations regularly acquire vast territories, often to the detriment of communities that have lived there for many generations. The rights of Indigenous people, therefore, are often infringed upon, not to mention that rivers and all animal and plant species are threatened. Fiercely defended by followers of neoliberalism, the principle that corporations are persons is at the root of the overwhelming inequalities rampant in democracies today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
This problem could be overcome in part if we considered land in terms of interdependence. As D\u2019Souza writes, \u201cLand is not a \u2018thing.\u2019 It is a bond that ties people to nature and to each other.\u201d ^{11<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 11 <\/a> - D\u2019Souza, What\u2019s Wrong with Rights?, 5.<\/em><\/span> An equitable redistribution of rights would help to avoid the climate abuses that companies and governments commit with impunity. We need to equip ourselves with an imaginary so as to radically reform democratic institutions, if we wish to see climate and social justice done. In art practices, assemblies and fictional tribunals consequently function as dress rehearsals or large-scale collective exercises. They offer a glimpse of the political space that democracy and the current legal system are still unable to achieve. For it is clear that only the implementation of a global system of sanctions, a \u201creal\u201d tribunal against environmental crimes modelled on the International Criminal Court, would exert pressure on negligent companies and states. And if there is an urgency to act, it is because nature\u2019s resilience also has its limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Translated from the French by Oana Avasilichioaei<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
A professor in contemporary museology issues at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al, Marie J. Jean is also artistic director of VOX, centre de l\u2019image contemporaine, and an exhibition curator.<\/p>\n
Bruno Latour, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique A\u00eft-Touati, Jonas Staal, Marie J. Jean, Milo Rau, Radha D\u2019Souza<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Climate change produces a deeply existential human crisis whose symptoms can be measured against the eco-anxiety that many people now feel. We observe, often with a sense of powerlessness, the repercussions of global warming, pollution, and barbaric exploitation of resources, which already are leading to disasters and causing the extinction of countless species. A similar fear was palpable during the Cold War, when nuclear weapons raised concerns about the extermination of most life on Earth. Yet this threat was hypothetical in comparison with what climate change represents [NOTE count=1]today.[\/NOTE][REF count=1]Naomi Klein elaborates on the relationship between the two phenomena in This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate<\/em> (Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2014), 13.[\/REF]<\/br><\/br>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":185964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[882],"tags":[],"numeros":[6052],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[2955],"artistes":[6102,6103,6104,5715,6105],"thematiques":[],"type_post":[],"class_list":["post-186002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post","numeros-108-resilience-en","auteurs-marie-j-jean-en","artistes-bruno-latour-en","artistes-frederique-ait-touati-en","artistes-jonas-staal-en","artistes-milo-rau-en","artistes-radha-dsouza-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271142,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186002\/revisions\/271142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=186002"},{"taxonomy":"type_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_post?post=186002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}