Across a vast area of the Jura region, residents committed to observing the forest are initiating an art commission focusing on the presence of the lynx and the sensitive relationship between humans and the forest environment.
The commission is taking place in various areas of the Jura, notably around Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne, Salins-les-Bains, Arbois, Poligny, Champagnole, and Saint-Claude. The new patrons share a regular, often solitary, practice of forest observation. Some are also personally involved in research, information, or awareness-raising activities related to the return of large predators to rural areas.
Brought together by this shared experience, the new patrons wish to examine their own position as observers. In particular, they question the attitude of lying in wait, shared by practices as diverse as hunting, photography, and natural science, and the forms of symbolic predation that it can imply. The commission aims to shift the gaze, to break with a strictly anthropocentric reading and to experience, through experimentation, the possible interactions between animals, the forest and human actions.
The request is for a prolonged artistic immersion in the forest, with and without new patrons, in order to prioritize sensory experience over access to established knowledge, archives and scientific studies.
This commission is part of the Lynx project, led by la Société des Nouveaux commanditaires with the support of France Nation Verte, and developed within the framework of the National Action Plan for the Eurasian Lynx (2022–2026).