Screening in the presence of filmmaker Isabelle Masson-Loodts, on WWI toxic legacies and nuclear waste.

Some dangers don’t end when the last witnesses are gone and memory fades. Unexploded ammunition, buried chemical waste, and poisoned soils can persist for decades, sometimes centuries. And when it comes to nuclear waste, the timeline stretches much further. The threat may be out of sight but it is not gone. So how do we stay vigilant when risk outlasts generations?

The documentary Un héritage empoisonné (2018) follows the toxic leftovers of World War I: explosive shells and chemical pollution that still resurface in landscapes and communities today. Filmmaker, journalist, and archaeologist Isabelle Masson-Loodts travels through regions still marked by the war. She meets people living with contaminated land, and those who keep stumbling upon what was buried long ago.

From WWI dumping sites in Lorraine and the Meuse, the film moves to an even longer legacy: nuclear waste and the tensions surrounding deep geological disposal near Bure. What does it mean to protect the future when danger is sealed underground? And how should public authorities monitor, manage, and communicate risks that will outlast political cycles? After the screening, Isabelle Masson-Loodts joins us to discuss what landscapes retain, what is pushed out of public view, and what responsibility looks like when consequences endure

Isabelle Loodts trained as an archaeologist and art historian. After becoming a freelance journalist, she produced numerous reports on environmental issues. Her interest in both the environment and history led her, from 2009 onwards, to explore a field of research that had received little attention at the time: the environmental legacy of the First World War. As an author and documentary-maker, she has published her investigations in various forms, including the book Paysages en bataille (Nevicata, 2014), the radio series Dernières nouvelles du front (RTBF, 2014), and the documentary Un héritage empoisonné (2018).

19:30: Screening Un héritage empoisonné (French, with English subtitles)

20:30 - 21u00: Q&A with Isabelle Masson-Loodts, moderated by researcher Gwendal Piégais (University College Dublin) - in French and English

The Foragers: Engagements beyond the Human, an interdisciplinary art-science project that brings together artists, researchers and enthusiasts to reimagine the ancient practice of foraging as a bold, imaginative and future-facing practice.  Alongside film screenings, talks and collective practices, the programme comes together in the exhibition at Pilar (24 April – 29 May).