“Our century demands stories that are topical rather than utopian, that start from places and return to places.”¹ Camille de Toledo

The initial research questions were: How can the law of the living be artistically embodied around Sambre?² What forms might the resulting narrative take? Could these generate new ways of looking and imagining?

In the face of the ecological crisis, as well as social and economic fragility, rethinking our connection to living things, and especially to Sambre, is urgent. Additionally, this research has attempted to give a central and political role to art as a generator of new enthusiasms, creating transdisciplinary and transformative mobilisations in particular.

This research project is anchored in a broader scientific and theoretical context. Since the end of the twenty-first century, a theoretical movement, of which Bruno Latour and Philippe Descola are major figures,³ has underscored that far from being universal, the dualism between nature and culture is a late characteristic of Western thought. Far from our “naturalistic ontology,” as Descola describes it, other ways of thinking about or relationship with living things is possible.

This shift in thinking has also been reflected in the legal sphere, with the recognition as a subject of rights of either nature in general (in Ecuador and Bolivia), or of specific natural entities (such as the Whanganui River in New Zealand and the Mar Menor in Spain), as well as initiatives aimed at achieving similar recognition (the Parliament of the Loire river [Parlement de Loire]).

The project FRArt “Sambre, vers une personnalité juridique de la rivière ?” [Sambre, towards legal personhood for the river?], which brought together five artists around this question, supported by several experts and schools, is part of an extensive initiative, Sambre2030. The project, initiated in 2022, has expanded in scope thanks to the research project which resulted in new alliances.

Before discussing the project itself and the new alliances that it is developing, we feel it is important to clarify the objectives of Sambre2030, the issues linked to the rights of nature and the context of the river Sambre. Artistic and cultural questions cannot be separated from the overall project in which they are embedded.

The name Sambre2030 was chosen in part because of targets the European Union has set for that year in an attempt to protect the planet from climate upheaval and the collapse of biodiversity;⁴ it was also chosen in reference to the bicentenary of the canalisation of Sambre, the first river to be entirely canalised, in 1830.

This project focused on the rights of Sambre was inspired by a number of international and European initiatives; it is motivated by the need to improve the quality of the ecosystem of living beings around Sambre. This reconnection between living beings is leading to an evolution in practices at a systemic level. The actions of Sambre2030 are structured around four main axes: a cross-disciplinary legal axis, and three sectorial axes: cultural and artistic, environmental, and socioeconomic. This structure is inspired by the work of philosopher Félix Guattari,⁵ who showed that the ecological transition was not only environmental but also social and mental. This systematic approach enables a wide range of stakeholders to contribute to the project, each in line with their own field of activity. In this way, the FRArt research project is part of a systemic vision. Guattari, in his various groundbreaking works,⁶ insists on the essential role of culture and the artist to change our subjectivities in order to extricate ourselves from the ecological crisis, which is considered to be systematic. In this respect, the rights of nature suggest a genuine ontological transformation of our relationship to the world: that of looking at the river Sambre not as something that can infinitely be at the disposal of humans, but as a living entity. A subject with rights.

The artist diplomat

Félix Guattari insists on the necessity of creating new forms of solidarity while reinforcing differences and singularities. Does this mean that we could envisage new kinds of solidarity with the nonhuman? And could these lead to new solidarities between humans themselves? The river, a zone of life, is the site of a large number of activities. A multitude of interests are at play around Sambre. The question of legality is a valid response to this fragmentation of interests, as it leads to a systemic evolution in practices, respecting the multiplicity of issues through dialogue around and with the river. During the various projects we have undertaken, particularly with universities, we have been surprised to see that this reconnection with the river allows new connections to be made between different worlds that do not necessarily communicate with each other. We are thinking especially of the experiments carried out as part of a residency in Thuin that brought together a number of European universities under the coordination of Professor Christine Fontaine,⁷ and which enabled a number of stakeholders from the same city to meet in a very enthusiastic way. The work realised during the residency was shown at the Centre Culturel de Haute Sambre in Thuin. Anecdotally, during the opening, the water jousters of Sambre, with whom the students had worked, visited the cultural centre for the very first time. Thus, worlds that considered themselves “foreign” came together.

Notably, Sambre2030 has connected the Contrat Rivière Sambre et Affluents with its French equivalent, SAGE Sambre.⁸ This new alliance is focused on invasive species and flooding, which must be dealt with on a trans-territorial basis. These are concrete examples that show the necessity of thinking from the river in a systematic way.

This wave of solidarity did not stop at our borders. On April 30, 2025, the French Assemblée nationale welcomed various natural entities seeking recognition as legal subjects, during a symposium on the rights of nature organised by member of parliament Charles Fournier, who is also involved in the Parlement de Loire project. Thus, the river Sambre was present alongside the rivers Loire, Durance, and Têt, the Mar Menor lagoon, and other European rivers and waterways. This historic and symbolic moment, which brought these natural entities into the French Parliament, reflects the fact that we are witnessing a genuine movement!

Thus, artistic research supports a certain diplomacy that listens to nature’s various voices as they express the constituted singularities and differences. This diplomacy of healing fragmentation and isolation engenders approaches that are transdisciplinary and trans-territorial. It offers new ways of listening and new connections, for example between lock keepers and researchers, artists and engineers, politicians and cultural partners.⁹

The rights of nature

Emeritus law professor Marie-Angèle Hermitte associates the question of the rights of nature with a form of legal animism.¹⁰ To summarise, Hermitte recognises three types: religious or mystical legal animism (the Ganges River in India is recognised as a legal person due to its sacred place in the Hindu religion), indigenous legal animism (the involvement of First Nations peoples and local communities in the recognition of natural entities as legal subjects, such as Mother Earth—Pachamama—in the Ecuadorian constitution), and scientific legal animism, which aligns with Western culture, where scientific findings (animal sentience, plant intelligence, complexity of natural environments, etc.) support the adoption of stronger environmental protection laws.

In the West we do not have an animist tradition, but scientists, through their discoveries, call on us to question the sensitivity and intelligence of other living beings and remind us of the existence of a form of reciprocity between natural entities. They invite us to adopt other forms of representation that recognise that this interdependence with rivers is for our own survival.

In 1972, University of California law professor Christopher D. Stone published a very important text on the rights of nature in Western culture.¹¹ The article focused particularly on a case involving Walt Disney Enterprises, Inc. and the Sierra Club, an ecological group that was initially formed as a hiking club. Walt Disney wanted to build a ski resort in California’s Mineral King Valley. The Sierra Club objected because to make way for the project, Walt Disney wanted to cut down thousand-year-old redwoods. When the case reached the Court of Appeals, the latter ruled in favour of Walt Disney, citing that the Sierra Club “lacked standing” to act in the affair. It was at this point that Stone’s idea of granting trees the right to take legal action to defend their own interests emerged. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Although the court upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeals, one judge took up Stone’s arguments in his dissenting opinion. In asking this simple question, Stone carries the voice of nature, which exists in deep time. Do thousand-year-old redwoods have a right to life in the face of short-term economic exploitation? In his text, Stone evokes American history to show that it was judicial recognition of racialised people, as well as women, that changed the way these people were viewed and treated. He shows that the recognition of a natural entity as a legal person is technically possible, because we grant this right to legal entities such as companies and associations. This recognition is also expedient from an ethical perspective, but socially, are we ready to accept it? Thus, Stone raises issues of subjectivities that are necessarily linked to cultural questions. Our research project is thus part of fundamental reflections aimed at developing the conditions for this ontological shift in subjectivities.

Sombre Sambre!

The rights of nature necessarily imply anchorage in a particular territory and context. In the case of Sambre, we are discussing nature’s postindustrial rights.

The river Sambre, 190 kilometres long, stretches from Fontenelle in France (its source) to Namur in Belgium, where it flows into Meuse. Historically, its catchment basin served as a passageway between France and Belgium, playing a strategic role for armies searching to bypass the Ardennes, meaning it has been the scene of a number of battles. Sambre crosses towns such as Maubeuge in France, Charleroi and Thuin in Belgium, which were historic strongholds built to control access to the river. Sambre also witnessed the flourishing of many abbeys (Floreffe, Aulnes, Saint-Pierre de Lobbes, Maubeuge, etc.), which contributed to its economic development.

It was in the nineteenth century, during the industrial revolution, that the region around Sambre experienced considerable growth. At the time, it was one of the richest and technologically advanced regions in the world. Sambre’s banks saw the birth and prospering of several industrial giants, for example in the field of chemistry (Solvay) or in the steel industry, and it became a major centre for glass production (a significant revolution and invention for the industrial process to manufacture of flat glass by continuous casting—Glaverbel).¹² This boom gave rise to a production model mainly based on extractivism and productivism, in which the river Sambre played a central role. “Taking primacy over nature, the engineer of the nineteenth century canalised the river. They turned it from a wild beast into a workhorse.”¹³ Its marshes were drained to construct new factories and its course “corrected,” ignoring its meanders in order to facilitate navigation. It became the first fully canalised river in Belgium (1830).¹⁴ The ecological consequences of this canalisation were disastrous. The pollution and industrial waste were so severe that plans were made to completely cover the river in some places, such as the main boulevard in the centre of the city of Charleroi. Sambre, essentially viewed as an open sewer, was ignored. This was the case for many urban rivers that were made invisible.¹⁵

The progressive closure of the factories and mines from the mid- to late-twentieth century left scars on the landscape and accelerated this process of disconnection from the river. Today, in many places, Sambre seems neglected and abandoned. The river’s ecological condition is catastrophic.¹⁶

Sombre Sambre!

Making the river visible

In practical terms, making the river visible means showing the river as subject but it also means showing its absence! The state of the river’s pollution is connected to neglect and a lack of consideration.

Research then involves the production of a new body of knowledge and new data based on the cultural shift in the rights of nature. This requires direct engagement with the territory. The project has thus resulted in the organisation of a number of residencies with schools and universities. All of the participating artists have spent a lot of time exploring the region of Sambre. This learning process also involved consulting the archives and data connected to the economic, social, an environmental history of Sambre. There are stories of Sambre that must be exhumed and listened to. Thus, this immersion takes place on several levels.

Research around Sambre involved the work of five artists. The aim was to create a way of “listening” to the river through different modes of expression. By “listening” we mean multimodal approaches that generate new connections to the river but also acknowledge, as previously mentioned, the lack of consideration given to the river and its isolation.

With the intention of listening to the river in the word’s primary sense, sound artist Julien Poidevin (in collaboration with artist Rose Trandafir) focused on an installation that connects the sounds of the river with a new form of storytelling, in which the river tells its own story, in the first person.

Filmmaker Xavier Istasse and Julien Poidevin have collaborated on an experimental film about the HF4 in Charleroi, one of the city’s old blast furnaces. This abandoned metal cathedral on Sambre’s banks is the symbol of and witness to the industrial past of Charleroi. It is an important element of the territory’s collective memory. Xavier Istasse is extending the work with a documentary on Sambre and the processes initiated by Sambre2030.

Photographer Gilles Saussier and artist Vincent Meessen have collaborated on a photographic project. Gilles Saussier has spent three residency periods at the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi. The first involved travelling the entire course of Sambre, from the source in France, around Thiérache, until Charleroi, through the territories and locks of Landrecies, Maubeuge, Jeumont, and Thuin. The second residency was part of the public presentation at the Charleroi city hall of the workshop organised by LOCI-IMA. For this occasion, a meeting and collaboration was initiated with Micheline and Francis Dufert and the association Chemin des terrils. And the third was part of an urban walk co-organised by the Chemins des terrils and filmmaker Jorge León, invited by the choreographic centre Charleroi danse.

My work has concentrated on putting the project in narrative form and coordinating Sambre2030. The narrative is expressed through convergences and various collaborations, such as the writing of a “Sambre” entry the forthcoming Dictionnaire des droits de la nature,¹⁷ whose authors are also among the legal experts involved in the Sambre2030 project.¹⁸

The research project also relies on a constellation of cultural partners with whom the artists have collaborated.

Repairing fragmentations and dissociation

The second axis is that of repairing the fragmentations and dissociations via a trans-territorial, transdisciplinary approach.

This research project was based on a series of listening days titled “Tous En’Sambre,”¹⁹ which were organized in 2024, and which enabled the voices of different stakeholders to be heard in defence of the river’s interests. This project made it possible to gather a series of transdisciplinary and trans-territorial attachments to Sambre and to draft a manifesto acknowledging our interdependence with the river, in a unifying “we are Sambre” spirit. The objective of “we are Sambre” is to repair our relationship with the river, which has been polluted because it has been considered as a thing, an other radically independent of humans. Planetary limits, however, invite us to rethink this otherness and this dissociation. Our health depends on that of our waterways.

Drafting the Manifeste de Sambre [Sambre Manifesto] benefited from a legal expertise. The manifesto is a prelude to a declaration of the rights of Sambre, which will serve as the basis for future implementation of these rights at different levels of governance. The final draft was written through collective intelligence, bringing together several hundred people as part of a large public celebration organised by Delta in Namur, in association with the Sambreville cultural centre. Declaiming the manifesto and the issues related to the rights of nature were entrusted to actor Simon Fiasse.

With the goal of facilitating these new restorative anchor points, Virginie Pigeon and Marine Declève collaborated on a participatory mapping project, bringing together citizens from different territories to create a co-constructed atlas.²⁰ It has enabled new beneficial reappropriations.

This commitment must necessarily be over the long term. Several partners, such as the Université de Liège, under the impetus of Professor Sophie Dawance, have committed to working on Sambre for several years. This involvement allows the pooling and sharing of knowledge. As a result of this momentum, a multidisciplinary research lab has been set up. This laboratory is a precursor to a scientific committee that will be instrumental in establishing the new governance systems around Sambre. We are thinking of the inspiring example of the governance of the lagoon Mar Menor in Spain, recognised as a legal entity in 2022, which has integrated a scientific committee into its supervisory body, one of three committees that represent the lagoon.

The political role of art

The third axis responds to a pragmatic need, to give a political role to culture and the arts. Do we need to wait for catastrophe before acting? Sambre2030 is linked with different experts, especially those who worked on the Vesdre river following the devastating floods in eastern Belgium in 2021 (in which several people died and the financial losses for the Walloon region were enormous). These experts have been undertaking studies for two years, and they are advocating for a dialogue with the river.²¹ The Sambre2030 project is in line with this vision of a partnership between the human and nonhuman that is not natural but pragmatic. This partnership is formalised by the recognition of Sambre as a legal person in a form of legal animism advocated by lawyer Marie-Angèle Hermitte.²² Culture and the arts are thus regaining a political role and new forms of expression. The need to engage new relationships with natural entities—and Sambre in particular—is not linked to a form of idealism but serves pragmatic and political purposes.

Artistic research gives us invaluable tools to spark this cultural revolution of recognising Sambre’s rights as part of a political project. The process is still long, but the research project has helped us to get a foot in the door. Additional funding is needed to complete the different research necessary. Current policies are focused on a single voice, that of the economy. And yet… Climate change is showing the blind spots of this economy, which closes its eyes to the consequences of future disasters. It is time to reconsider the contribution of artists and their cautionary messages. In the silent cries of invisible entities rising up in revolt.

The voices of Sambre

Artistic research is at the forefront and producing new narratives is fundamental to changing subjectivities and engaging in a Copernican revolution in our relationship with natural entities.

In a visionless world, where bearings and vision have been lost, this new way of listening allows for new forms of solidarity and new, salutary anchors. And so the diplomatic artist integrates themselves into a constellation of actors, their research, like a musical composition, superimposing different voices that they make heard, those of the voices of Sambre.

Research project by Olivier Pestiaux

Research participants: Artist co-authors: Julien Poidevin, Xavier Istasse, Gilles Saussier, and Vincent Meessen

Legal expert: Marine Yzquierdo

Scientific coordinator: Christine Fontaine (LOCI-IMA)