A War Against Nature (EN)

What happens when a war ends? Armed conflicts affect not only people and infrastructure, but also ecosystems. Soils are poisoned, water sources destroyed, and farmland rendered unusable: the destruction of nature is rarely mere collateral damage, but often a structural part of conflict. Even when the weapons fall silent, that ecological devastation continues to have an impact. Nature becomes an invisible occupied zone, one to which communities cannot return and where life remains impossible for a long time.

This debate explores ecocide through war: the large-scale and often long-lasting destruction of ecosystems caused by armed conflict. The French city of Verdun shows how deep these scars can run. More than a century after the First World War, the so-called zone rouge remains inaccessible: millions of unexploded shells and contaminated soils make agriculture and habitation impossible. Similar patterns can still be seen across the world today, from destroyed farmland and water infrastructure to deforestation, chemical pollution, and massive emissions caused by military activities. 

Yet environmental damage caused by war is rarely punished. Although international law already recognises it as a war crime, the conditions are so strict that prosecutions almost never succeed in practice. That is why calls are growing to recognise ecocide as a separate international crime: not only punishable on paper, but also legally enforceable in practice.

The debate brings together perspectives from art, law and research, with artist and researcher Marjolijn Dijkman, environmental crime expert Babs Verhoeve, architect and researcher Omar Ferwati (Forensic Architecture), and artist and researcher Shayma Nader, moderated by Selma Franssen (deBuren).

PROGRAMME

19:00: Doors open
19:30: Start event
21:00: End 
Until 22:00: Drinks and informal conversation at the bar

TICKETS

Tickets are pay-what-you-can: €3 / €7 (suggested price) / €10. Choose the price that fits your budget. If a lower ticket helps you join, go for it. And if you’re able to pay a bit more, you’ll help someone else attend for less. 

PART OF

The Foragers: Engagements beyond the Human, an interdisciplinary art-science project that brings together artists, researchers and enthusiasts to reimagine the ancient practice of foraging as a bold, imaginative and future-facing practice.  Alongside film screenings, talks and collective practices, the programme comes together in the exhibition at Pilar (24 April – 29 May). This evening is organised by Crosstalks VUB in collaboration with deBuren, Oikos, Pilar and Moussem.