Agir pour le vivant festival

2020
2023
Agir pour le Vivant festival, evening programme: “Réensauvager l’humanité”, Chapelle du Méjan, Arles, 2020 © Benjamin Cayzac
Agir pour le vivant festival, opening night, Arles, 2020 © Benjamin Cayzac
In the context of the climate emergency, the Agir pour le Vivant festival is an Arles-based initiative with a national reach that brings together thinkers, experts and doers in order to encourage a new consciousness around the importance of preserving biodiversity. By gathering and pooling experiences in this way, the festival aims to identify and develop alternative approaches that will allow new narratives to emerge to support and defend the natural environment.

Between August 24 and 30, 2020, more than 5,000 guests from a broad range of backgrounds were invited to Arles to share their different approaches and skills for the first edition of Agir pour le Vivant. As part of its Biodiversity & Ecosystems programme, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports this collective initiative, which seeks to propose concrete and sustainable solutions to build a society more respectful of nature.

Philosophers, gardeners, botanists, agronomists, writers, entrepreneurs, scientists, and activists working to preserve ecosystems came together to discuss the transition of businesses and policies towards sustainability, to demand social and climatic justice, and to imagine the rewilding of humanity. These constructive approaches were conceived at every level, from the local to the global.

The Agir pour le Vivant festival returned with an even more ambitious programme in 2021, taking place in Arles and Paris and continuing with events across France. With this edition, Agir pour le Vivant aimed to broaden even further the body of expertise on the protection of the environment, through the design and testing of new experimental approaches and increased awareness around biodiversity.

For its third edition in 2022, the Agir pour le Vivant festival will adopt multiple formats. Alongside a week of encounters and debates open to the public from 22 to 28 August, different residency formats are offered to professionals including artists, entrepreneurs, and researchers, as well as workshops and walks. Since spring, some projects have already been launched, both in Arles and further afield, while others will develop and grow over coming years. In this way, the Agir pour le Vivant festival continues to take root and spread its innovative approach over an ever-wider area.

Disciplines
Biodiversity
Arles
France
The Agir pour le Vivant festival seeks to propose concrete and sustainable solutions for the creation of a society more respectful of nature.
Between August 24 and 30, 2020, more than 5,000 guests from a broad range of backgrounds were invited to Arles to share their different approaches.
The festival aims to raise as broad an awareness as possible around the importance of the natural environment and biodiversity.

See also