Vortrag von Dr. Florence Fröhlig (Stockholm) / Élise Alloin (Strasbourg): Fessenheim's Nuclear Power Plant under Artistic and Ethnographic Scrutiny

In 2020 the two reactors at Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant were eventually shutdown. Regional and transnational debates about the site’s reconversion that flourished ever since have failed to consider the material and immaterial value of this nuclear power plant for the region.

To address this gap, we launched an action-participatory research, combining ethnological analytical methodology with artistic practices. This allowed to initiate a reflection on the imprint of this nuclear power plant in the cultural, natural, and mental landscape of the region. In this article, we present four audience specific meeting devices: an introductory exhibition, a round table, a postcard, and an event for schoolchildren. These were developed to raise awareness about the issue at stake and to collect the imaginaries that this power station has left among the people concerned.

These participatory action-research devices, carried out over almost a year, made it possible to open dialogue and raise awareness among a public that is generally reluctant to engage with the material and immaterial value of the plant in the region. The meeting devices helped to bring to the surface different imaginaries and associations, yet only certain expressions could be collected as part of personal experiences in relation to the plant. This interaction between an artist, an ethnologist, and an audience has proven to be a convincing method to knowledge co-production. Moreover, it started a form of public engagement that other actors may build on to continue the process of reflection initiated by this introductory exhibition. 

Keywords: Fessenheim, nuclear power plant, post-nuclear territory, action-participatory research, meeting devices, memorialization, material and immaterial traces, awareness.

Dr Florence Fröhlig, is a cultural anthropologist. She is currently a university lecturer and researcher at the School of Contemporary and Historical Studies at Södertörn University. Within the research projects Nuclear Legacies: Negotiating radioactivity in France, Russia and Sweden (2015-2017) and the research project Atomic Heritage Goes Critical (2018-2020), she has been addressing the social process related to the decommissioning of the nuclear plant at Fessenheim (France) and especially the process concerning the memorialization and heritagization of nuclear power plants in France.  https://atomicheritage.wordpress.com/.

Elise Alloin is an Art Practice Researcher, currently affiliated to the CRESAT, University of Haute-Alsace, France. Elise has been working for many years with issues related to radioactivity, visibility and invisibility. Some of her work can be seen on http://www.elisealloin.com/2019-11-ALLOIN_ELISE.en.pdf

Das PDF zum Vortrag finden Sie hier