Éléonore Saintagnan – Fioretti, 2026
Éléonore Saintagnan – Fioretti's set, 2026

Can humans learn to share the world with other forms of life? Éléonore Saintagnan explores this question through a filmed tableau vivant poised between lecture, theatre and cinema. On a red-and-white picnic blanket, Saint Francis, a human-sized parrot, a slug and a giant fish discuss relations between humans and animals from the Middle Ages to the present. The roles are played by anthropologist and medieval historian Pierre-Olivier Dittmar, Éléonore Saintagnan herself, Aude Volpilhac, a scholar of 17th century literature, and puppeteer Sophie Coëffic. Their conversation begins with the alleged fifteenth-century trial of slugs in Lyon. Animals accused of damaging crops could be summoned before an Ecclesiastical court and even assigned legal representation. From there, the discussion traces changing understandings of insects and arrives at present-day concerns about pesticides and biodiversity. The installation also includes the remains of the picnic, with the empty puppets still gathered on the blanket.

Éléonore Saintagnan’s films inhabit the space between documentary and fiction, exploring the intersections of belief and knowledge in everyday life. Her work weaves together elements of history and myth, expert knowledge and vernacular understanding. Rather than setting reality against fiction, her films sustain a productive tension.