Colloquium organized by Professor Mieke Bal, June1 2023 in the Guillaume Budé amphitheatre at the Collège de France (Marcelin Berthelot site).
Published on 31 May 2023
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Colloquium " Solitude in a crowd
Gelatin silver print, 9 1/2 × 12 1/2" (24.2 × 31.7 cm).
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Thomas Walther. Digital image courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Loneliness in a crowd
From the Trojan War to the attempts of African migrants to enter Europe from Gibraltar, Greece or elsewhere, the idea of stable populations is being shattered. This colloquium proposes a collective reflection, meditation and discussion on the social state and state of mind of refugees arriving in Europe with no ties, no relations, and no common language to enable them to communicate with their new society. Without being alone, they are overwhelmed by isolation. Solitude in a crowd is undoubtedly more painful than solitude at all, because of the contrast felt with an environment where people communicate and look at each other.
The colloquium will therefore include a reflection on " l'apprentissage " on the social activity of seeing, through a short film I made with a young artist, which I propose to watch as a visual introduction to this problem that is hardening human relations in Europe. We'll be able to tackle the question of this exasperating solitude, its causes and different forms, and what we can propose as a remedy. Other videos will also be shown and commented on. The lectures will analyze different emotional experiences, forms of loneliness and the tools, available or lacking, that lonely people make use of, first and foremost language.
