Fiction-Science

Based on the unusual and playful relationship to science of the characters of Gustave Flaubert's famous novel Bouvard and Pécuchet, the Fiction-Science laboratory invites us to think about the relationship between the arts and natural sciences. The activity of digging is explored in turn as Flaubert's immersion in the sciences and knowledge of his time, as the way of life and creation of the two companions Bouvard and Pécuchet, but also as a geomorphological, physical and artistic activity.

Dominique De Beir, a  visual artist and professor at ESADHaR Rouen, Samuel Etienne, an geomorphologist at EPHE - PSL and an artist-publisher, and Tania Vladova, a doctor from EHESS and a professor of aesthetics at the Ecole supérieure d'art et design le Havre/Rouen,  conduct a joint research project on the role of the digging tools and the act of digging, both in the scientific and artistic field. They give an overview of landscapes, strata and subsoil.  Flaubert and the indefatigable Bouvard and Pécuchet, great ploughmen of literature and of the Normandy land, are emblematic of a relationship to science that is both committed and offbeat, are the inspiration of this research project, which is at the crossroads of knowledge.

The exhibition is available as part of the Science Festival and it will present the work carried out by the project leaders and the ESADHaR students who participated in the "Erosion/Alteration" workshop.

The Fiction-Science project is accredited by the Flaubert21 scientific committee, which organizes the celebrations of the Gustave Flaubert's birth 200 years ago.