This book accompanies the second edition of the Art & Industry Triennial - Chaleur humaine (10 June 2023 — 14 January 2024), produced by the Frac Grand Large — Hauts-de-France and the Lieu d'Art et Action Contemporaine (LAAC) in Dunkirk. Its objective: connecting the history of art to forms of energy since 1972.
Edited by Camille Richert, with Anna Colin, the Triennial curators, and encompassing a series of essays by social science scholars, the exhibition catalogue touches on and problematises notions of progress, resources, consumption and productivity. It further highlights the ways in which artists, through their perceptive accounts, have examined these subjects, making new forms or functions of energy emerge.
A chronology set in the middle of the catalogue lays out some of the successive milestones of this intertwined history. In addition, a conversation between the curators and some of the artists exhibiting in the Triennial provides some keys to understanding the current debates around the theme of energy.