We Are “Nature” Defending Itself: Entangling Art, Activism and Autonomous Zones

THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED. A later date in 2022 will be found.

by Isabelle Fremeaux and Jay Jordan

Chronicles the story of the ZAD (zone to defend), a resistant land occupation emerging out of a decades-long struggle which stopped a new airport project

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 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. 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.

This event considers one of a number of books from the new Pluto Books Vagabonds series. Published in collaboration with the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest. Further info: https://vagabonds.xyz/wandi/ 

Isabelle Fremeaux is a popular educator and action researcher. She was formerly Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck College London. Along with Jay Jordan, she is a coordinator of The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination.

Jay Jordan is co-founder of Reclaim the Streets (1995-2000) and the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, and co-author of We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism (Verso, 2003) and A User’s Guide to Demanding the Impossible (Minor Compositions, 2011). He is a coordinator of The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination.

All events are sliding scale—choose the level at which you are able to contribute to The Marxist Education Project. We have introduced a $2.50 rate (less than a one way transit fare) for those who want to contribute but have difficulty with all three levels of our sliding scale of $7 to $11. No one is denied admission to any event or class because of an inability to pay. Register with the “Cash at First Session” option if you are not able to pay.