In 2021, as part of an artistic project, I undertook a boat journey along the Meuse and Sambre rivers.Observing the pollution and the deteriorating relationship between the Sambre River and its inhabitants during this journey, I initiated a unique approach aimed at granting legal personality to the Sambre River. This highly ambitious move, a first in Belgium, is inspired by various recent international initiatives. As a subject of law, the river is no longer seen as a mere thing or a "sewer" but as a living entity, a subject with which we have a reciprocal relationship. That's why we will refer to Sambre using a first name, rather than "the" Sambre as just a river. To achieve this goal, a transdisciplinary committee named SAMBRE 2030 has been established.

An important phase of this collective project has taken place in 2024 in the form of four days of meetings organized along the Sambre to formalize the project's objectives.

This artistic research project follows this approach and aims to investigate ways of articulating and formalizing the content derived from these meetings with contributions from experts, jurists, and artists, to enable the development of new narratives and initiatives around Sambre.

The central questions of this research are as follows: How can this right of the living be embodied around Sambre? What forms can the resulting narratives take? Can they generate new perspectives and imaginations?

Faced with the ecological crisis and social and economic fragility, it is urgent to rethink our relationship with the living, and with Sambre in particular. Furthermore, this research will attempt to give a central and political role to art as a generator of new enthusiasms, enabling transdisciplinary and transformative mobilizations.

Research co-authors: Gilles Saussier, Julien Poidevin, Xavier Istasse et Vincent Meessen

Legal expert: Marine Yzquierdo

Other legal experts: Marie-Sophie de Clippele - Delphine Misonne – UCL Saint Louis; Sacha Bourgeois Gironde – Université PSL - Paris; Mihnea Tǎnǎsescu - UMons

Scientific expert : Dimitri Belayew – Géographe spécialiste du Paysage - Pro Scape

Institutional parnerships: L’Eden - Charleroi – Manon Istasse; Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi – Christelle Rousseau; Le Delta - Namur – Anaël Lejeune

Project Lead Partner: The research project is led by ESA St-Luc Bruxelles – Direction: Septembre Tiberghien

Support and partnerships in this project: LOCI – UCL IMA (International Master of Architecture) – Christine Fontaine; ULiège Architecture and Urbanism – Sophie Dawance; ULB Territory and Landscape – Virginie Pigeon

Collaborations and Expertise: Legal Expert on the Rights of Nature

As the reflection centers on the relationship between the legal and artistic aspects of the Rights of Nature, through the case of the Sambre River, this research also involves questioning the role of the artist, in alignment with the ideas of philosopher Bruno Latour: Can art be made in the same way society is made? Can the public be placed at the heart of the process of creating art? An "art where the question of the public is renewed, where the social legitimacy of art is affirmed."

For Estelle Zhong Mengual, there is no doubt: art in common, which relies notably on participation, sets the conditions and forms for new possibilities of collective action. While the author seeks to understand and explain these conditions and forms, she also highlights the political dimension of this type of art, which tackles crucial social issues (community, participation, democracy, etc.).

The projects Parlement de Loire and La Grande Remontée de Loire exemplify these new ways of creating collective action in artistic projects. They demonstrate the contribution of artistic initiatives as drivers of new statements and narratives about how we live and act together in the world.

And the Sambre River, in particular, is in need of new narratives.