Lecture by Vincent Zonca:
“Thinking with Lichens: A Transdisciplinary Approach, from the Anthropocene to the Concept of Symbiosis” 

Please download the event’s poster HERE as a PDF.

Lecturer:
Vincent Zonca
Discussant:
Rui Matsuba (Rissho University)
Moderator:
Futoshi Hoshino (University of Tokyo/EAA)

Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Time: 17:00 – 18:30 (JST)
Venue: EAA Seminar Room (Room 11, Building 101, Komaba Campus I, University of Tokyo)
Language: English (with French and Japanese also available for discussion)
Organized by: East Asian Academy for New Liberal Arts, the University of Tokyo (EAA) 

Vincent Zonca is a writer, researcher, curator, and art critic. He graduated from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France) in Comparative Literature, and Spanish and Portuguese Studies. He worked initially as a professor and researcher, then as a cultural attaché for the French Embassy in Brazil (2018-2022), and currently as a cultural attaché for the French Embassy in Canada, in Vancouver, where he lives since 2022. His research and writings initially focused on poetic and artistic practices from the 19th to the 21st centuries. His work now seeks to think together about environmental issues, contemporary art practices, and history of sensitivities and representations. The concept of “symbiosis” is at the core of his research and of his methodology, which entangles disciplines (arts, philosophy, anthropology, natural sciences, architecture, urban planning, etc.), and which is based on collaborations. His writings and lectures also focus on the notions of “urban nature”, “marginalized biodiversity”, or “more than human sociability”. His first essay, Lichens, pour une résistance minimale, was published in France in 2021 by Le Pommier, with a preface by the philosopher Emanuele Coccia. It has been translated in 2023 into English (Polity Press) and Japanese (Misuzu Shobo).