FIRE
with VINCENT VOILLAT
Workshop PROGRAM
From elements collected in the landscape, the workshop focused on stories and the construction of necessary conditions to produce situations of otherness with the non-human.
Vincent Voillat explored the links between a territory (real or virtual), the flows that crossed it, its inhabitants, and their memories. He particularly studied the relationship between the landscape and its perception. His approach was based on sampling: geological extraction of rocks, study of strata, archaeological excavation, or study of plants.
He also drew on popular culture for the materials of his works: music, found objects, legends. He detected in the landscape of intervention the trace of bodies and revealed their imprint, their persistence, and their impressions on memory. Through association, juxtaposition, or reinterpretation, he reinvented a conceptual territory in which writing and text allowed these heterogeneous forms to be linked.
FULL GROUP PARTICIPATION
Pedagogical approach — fact sheet
Workshop title: Fire
Author/coordinator: Vincent Voillat
Duration/time span: 5 days
As part of the YES masterclass in Tours, the “Fire” workshop explored the hearth as a symbolic center for gathering, transformation, and resistance. Fire was addressed both as an archaic element and as a contemporary issue, particularly in relation to ecological collapse and the loss of shared environments.The aim was to collectively construct a hearth—from collecting wood to keeping the flame alive—while reconnecting gestures to a physical, sensitive, and shared relationship with the environment.
Context and program
Materials and methodologies
Materials came directly from the landscape: driftwood, riverbank stones, plant debris. The workshop began with a crossing of the Loire by barge, during which participants foraged dead wood on a small, uninhabited island.They then attempted to light a fire using ancestral friction techniques, eventually succeeding and collectively maintaining the flame until it could be brought back, still burning, on the Rabouilleuse boat—despite persistent rain. The method emphasized hands-on experience, cooperation, slowness, and cohabitation with the elements.
How can we remake a hearth in a world already on fire? What ancient knowledge can help reweave ties to matter? How can ritual, fiction, and care be invested in a shared flame? Can fire be transmitted, displaced, and shared without control? The workshop raised questions of non-verbal transmission, energy autonomy, and the fragility of shared responsibilities.
Key issues
Results and observations
The hearth built on the riverbank was ephemeral but deeply experienced. The crossing, the foraging, the failed attempts at ignition, and the eventual protection of the flame became a shared learning process.Fire emerged as the symbolic carrier of collective care, embodying a fragile commitment to keep something alive. The rain didn’t spoil the event—it forced the participants to respond with persistence, adaptation, and vulnerability.
Bachelard, Gaston. (1938). La psychanalyse du feu. Paris: Gallimard.
Bachelard, Gaston. (1964). The Psychoanalysis of Fire, trans. Alan C. M. Ross. Boston: Beacon Press.
Despret, Vinciane. (2021). Autobiographie d’un poulpe et autres récits d’anticipation. Arles: Actes Sud.
Ingold, Tim. (2000). The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. London: Routledge.
Stengers, Isabelle. (2019). Résister au désastre. Marseille: Wildproject. [No English edition currently available.]
References
Information provided and reviewed by each workshop coordinator. Content may be revised or updated.