Agora des Savoirs

When Painting Becomes Adornment. The Art of Color on Terracotta Figurines of Ancient Greece This conference is an introduction to the upcoming work: Sculpture in the Hands of Painters. Polychrome Terracottas of Ancient Greece, Brigitte Bourgeois, Violaine Jeammet (eds.). Musée du Louvre, École française d’Athènes. Unlike large sculpture, women, an invisible part of Greek society, are largely present in small clay sculptures, often associated with "Tanagras." Due to the richness and quality of their state of preservation, these statuettes provide a privileged field of study to rediscover the essential place of color in Greek art, as demonstrated by an ambitious study conducted by the Louvre Museum and the C2RMF, combining archaeology, art history, and archaeometry. It is indeed the painting that highlighted the beauty of faces and, with the addition of gilding, served to exalt the luxury of adornments. The conclusions of this investigation reveal a reality of Greek clothing that is unknown due to the material disappearance of textiles and allow us to understand that color, today lacking, came to complement, and sometimes even to supplement, the work of sculpted drapery. Thus, the quality of clothing, the exaltation of women, and even their heroization, through the use of rare and precious materials (malachite, Egyptian blue, vermilion, gold) are highlighted. The care and luxury devoted to the creation of these offerings, long undervalued, ultimately compel us to revisit their status, both from the perspective of their creation and their function. Violaine Jeammet (Musée du Louvre, Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities), General Curator of Heritage and Associate Member of UMR 8164 – H ALMA (Univ. Lille, CNRS, MC), is in charge of the collection of Greek and Roman clay figurines and reliefs, a primary iconographic source on the daily life of the Ancients, their customs and traditions. She regularly teaches at the Louvre School. Curator of several exhibitions, including "Tanagras" (2003 and 2010), she is the author of numerous articles, particularly on terracotta figurines and their reception in modern art. In partnership with Les Mercredis de l’Antiquité.

Public Passions (Seuil, 2026) From Black Lives Matter to the Yellow Vests, through MeToo, collective emotions are everywhere. They seem to saturate the space and obstruct rational argumentation, hindering discernment and the capacities for judgment and analysis. Subject to media frenzy, they sweep everything in their path, starting with the very conditions of public debate. Thus, it is easy to reject this grip of affectivity which, deployed in all directions, prohibits the exercise of reason. However, the attention given to these collective sensitivities leads to a precise questioning of the great divide between reason and the sensible, the sensible and the intelligible, reason and passions. It is in the field of political philosophy that this new book by Myriam Revault d’Allonnes, a prominent analyst of political current events, explores this opposition and dismantles the obvious, starting with the assumption that public reason would only be exercised in the silence of passions. What relationship does this emergence of subjectivities have with the capacity of reasonable man to provide himself with the means to deploy his action? Along the way, the philosopher revisits traditions of thought (from Plato to Arendt, through Rousseau) that not only paid attention to the unavoidable nature of passions but also questioned the conditions under which they could support the exercise of public reason and be at the very principle of the production of social bonds. In reality, public reason is rooted in the sensitive dispositions that make humanity of man. And its political vitality. Myriam Revault d’Allonnes is an emeritus professor at the École pratique des hautes études. Among her latest titles published by Éditions du Seuil: The Weakness of the True. What Post-Truth Does to Our Common World (2018), The Spirit of Macronism or the Art of Misleading Concepts (2021), and The Twilight of Critique (“Libelle”, 2022). She received the Special Jury Prize of the Political Book Prize in 2019 for her entire body of work. Partner bookstore: Le Grain des mots

Zoonoses Policy. Living with Animals in the Time of Pandemic Viruses (La Découverte, 2024), FRÉDÉRIC KECK How do zoonoses, these infectious animal diseases transmissible to humans, such as rabies, tuberculosis, avian flu, or Covid-19, change our conceptions of politics, power, and emancipation? Without the recent Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, this question might not have gained the sharpness and urgency that characterize it today. According to numerous scientific reports, the number and scope of these zoonoses are expected to increase, their prevalence being directly linked to climate disruptions and the rapid decline of biodiversity. It is common in ecological movements to interpret the proliferation of viruses as nature's revenge against the mistreatment inflicted by humans. A conspiratorial vein sees it as a struggle between powers over biological weapons. By focusing on contemporary pandemic preparedness practices, this book takes a completely different path. For, over the past twenty years, the "virus hunt," invented a century ago, has given way to another approach, where the animal plays a prominent role as a potential transmitter of warning signals, the traces of which are preserved in freezers and databases. Through the figure of the animal sentinel, a different relationship between humans and non-humans emerges, where solidarity already exists while remaining an ideal to be realized. A new solidarism, even a new socialism, could arise from this. Anthropologist and philosopher, Frédéric Keck is a research director at CNRS, a member of the Social Anthropology Laboratory at the Collège de France. He is notably the author of A World Affected by Flu (Flammarion, 2010) and Sentinels of Pandemics. Virus Hunters and Bird Observers at the Borders of China (Zones sensibles, 2020; reissued by Points Essais, 2021). Partner bookstore: Gibert

Repairing Justice. An Investigation into Restorative Practices in France (La Découverte, 2025), DELPHINE GRIVEAUD The observation is constantly repeated: justice is failing and no longer fulfills its missions. How can it be repaired? Perhaps by first ceasing to view the judicial institution as the sole holder of the means to "do justice." It is to consider other approaches that so-called "alternative" justice systems are employed, among which restorative justice stands out, encompassing various practices—from meetings between "victims" and "offenders" to support circles, and role-playing games to cultivate empathy—aimed at holding offenders accountable and preventing recidivism, caring for victims, and restoring social peace. Could this be the key to a fairer justice system? Delphine Griveaud attempts to answer this question by studying on the ground the restorative justice practices that have developed in the country since 2014. She analyzes the effects of its integration within a penal institution against which it has, however, been constructed. She delves into the workings of the judicial system, closely observing both its public and its professionals. Far from the idyllic visions that portray restorative justice as a miracle solution, she offers a clear, nuanced picture of a way of doing justice differently that confronts the reality of the institution. Delphine Griveaud is a sociologist and political scientist, a research officer at the National Fund for Scientific Research in Belgium. Her work questions the contours of justice, specifically investigating its so-called "alternative" forms and the policies of recognition and reparation for victims of sexual violence within the Catholic Church. Partner bookstore: La Cavale