PRIX ÉTUDIANT 2023 : THE LAUREATE

Created in 2019 by the Fondation Culture & Diversité and the COAL association, the COAL – Culture & Diversité Student Prize aims to support students from schools in the arts and culture field, across all disciplines, who are experimenting with and proposing concrete, creative solutions for the ecological transition.

In order to be as close as possible to these realities, the COAL – Culture & Diversity Student Prize is partnering the French Nature Reserves for the fourth year running, through a program of residencies.

Discover the
winners of the COAL 2023 Prize
.

LOUISA SELLERET, WINNER OF THE STUDENT PRIZE – CULTURE & DIVERSITY 2023 FOR THE PROJECT
ADVENTICES

Weeds, from the Latin adventium meaning literally “additional”, refer to plants that are added to a stand of vegetation that was previously free of them. These are introduced, non-native plants that eventually adapt and proliferate. The establishment and development of certain non-native plants on a territory weakens the environment, making invasive plants the second factor in the global loss of biodiversity to which certain nature reserves are committed.

Through its eponymous project

Adventices

,
Louisa Selleret
imagines an itinerant device enabling her to collect these prolific plants and then transform the discarded cellulose-gorged matter, reducing it to paper pulp and reconstructing it using the formal codes of plant biology anatomy. His itinerary will include Hydrocotyle Fausse-Renoncule in the Nord region, Bohemian Knotweed in the Côtes d’Armor, Yellow Lysichite in the Haute-Vienne, Arrow-leaved Baccharis in the Gironde, Greater Lagarosiphon in the Lot-et-Garonne, and Alligator Grass in the Vaucluse.

As each species has its own hue, the whole will form a large fresco revealing a diversity of colors and textures to accompany a work of documentation and education around the issue of invasive plants. The giant sample generated will make weeds cohabit as a single material, that of “plant”.

In an act of sublimation, Louisa Selleret breathes new life into this battered material, transforming it and giving it visibility at the end of the project, with the aim of informing people about the issue, but also providing a critical and sensitive look at the condition of these rejected women.

Louisa Selleret
(École nationale supérieure de création industrielle ENSCI-Les Ateliers)
Born in 1996 in Kremlin Bicêtre, France.

Louisa Selleret describes herself as “eternally eco-anxious”, which is why she regularly works with self-sufficient communities and actors involved in sustainable projects. Stung by an existential crisis, she took a 4-year break from her design studies to train as a prosthetist for amputees and “design just what’s needed”. Back at ENSCI les Ateliers, she sees design as an open, experimental discipline that must play its part in repairing the world.

DOTATION

The Culture & Diversity Foundation grants the winner a two-month residency in the Nature Reserves of France, along with a production grant of 5,000 euros. Within the framework of the residency, the Culture & Diversity Foundation covers accommodation, food and transportation costs.

PARTNERS

The Réserves Naturelles de France (RNF) association
is the umbrella organization for a national network of more than 700 nature protection professionals, working daily in the territories where some 350 nature reserves exist. Their actions are based on three missions: the knowledge of the natural biological and geological heritage, its management and protection, the sensitization and the discovery by the citizens of these spaces of nature, life, meetings and creation. As an ambassador for nature reserves, RNF is the voice of nature, actively mobilizing all of society’s stakeholders, particularly in the field of culture.

COAL STUDENT PRIZE HOLDERS
–
CULTURE & DIVERSITY

The Culture & Diversity Foundation,
a Fimalac corporate foundation created by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, aims to promote access to the arts and culture for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Since its launch in 2006, it has been designing and implementing sustainable programs directly in the field with its cultural, educational and social partners. More than 45,000 young people have already benefited from its actions.

The COAL – Culture & Diversity Student Prize is supported by the COAL association and the Culture & Diversity Foundation.