Program Overview

Introduction to the CEAC - Center for the Study of Contemporary Arts

The CEAC is a research center focused on contemporary arts, with a wide range of programs and research areas. The center is part of the University of Lille and has various collaborations with other laboratories and institutions.

Axes and Programs

The CEAC has four main axes, each with its own set of programs:

• Axis 1: Devices, images, memories
  • “Emancipated Imaginaries” Chair Program (CPJ)
  • Program “ICAR: forgotten images. Critical uses of photographic and film archives »
  • “Colors and Alterities” program (starting from autumn 2026)
  • Associated program “Sensitive law”
• Axis 2: Gestures, corporeality, societies
  • Program “Visual history of gender minorities, in France, in the 20th century”
  • Program “PHASMA: Phenomena: archives, survivals and artistic memories of phenomena in Western Europe 19th-21st centuries” (IUF)
  • “Archive Stories” program
• Axis 3: Creation process, experience, interculturality
  • “Listen – Place, architecture and politics” program
  • Research program (AMI SHS) “DemoCIS – Meeting democratic challenges”
  • “Artist projects / museum projects” program
  • Program “What does contemporary dance do to Asian choreographic traditions? »
• Axis 4: Arts, sciences and experiments
  • “Light of Show (LdS)” program
  • “IMAGINART – Post-growth and sustainability” program. Imagine and experiment with balanced artistic models” (ANR)
  • “SAPiD – Salt Art Heritage Discourse” program
  • “News on flowers” program
  • Associated program with UGA: “FORESEE: Living with the consequences of climate change” (AMI)
  • Associated program with Fresnoy: “Human sciences and fictions”
  • Associated program with Esä: “PRIST, Arts and Sciences”

Program “SAPiD – Salt Art Heritage Discourse”

Overview

The Program “SAPiD – Sel Art Patrimoine Discours” is a research program that focuses on the intersection of art, heritage, and discourse related to salt. The program is led by Valérie Boudier and involves researchers from various laboratories and institutions.

Research Team

The research team includes colleagues from the University of Lille, specializing in social sciences (HALMA - UMR 8164) and earth sciences (LGCgE URL 4515), as well as students from the Master's program in Arts and doctoral students at the CEAC.

Objectives

The program aims to study the different processes of elaboration and diffusion of representations, norms, and discourses on salt. It is an interdisciplinary project that combines history, art history, anthropology, archaeology, food history, and cultural studies.

Originality

The program's originality lies in its ability to unite a set of questions around a problematic developed along three complementary axes: salt and art, salt and heritage, salt and rhetoric. The program integrates a constant dialogue with scientists specializing in earth sciences and artists, following the logic of research-creation validated by the Interuniversity Network of Doctoral Schools Creation, Arts and Media (Res-CAM).

###Goals The program seeks to write a novel history of the images and stories dedicated to salt, an essential and yet little-known mineral agent. The project has a strong interdisciplinary dimension, articulating research in various fields, including history, art history, anthropology, and earth sciences.