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Initiated by the Käte Hamburger Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at Saarland University and the Goethe-Institut Nancy, the project combines academic research, artistic practice and perspectives from civil society.
On 4 July 2026, starting at 11.00 am, a forum for citizens in the Greater Region will explore the question of whether the Saar could be declared a legal entity, and what that would mean. The event, which will take place at Kulturgut Ost (An der Römerbrücke 5, 66121 Saarbrücken), will be open to the public.
The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.
In most legal systems, nature is regarded as an object subject to human control: as a resource that can be used, protected or managed, but which does not itself act in a legal capacity. Around the world, social movements, courts and legislators are increasingly debating whether natural entities can be recognised as legal persons. In the project ‘Rivers Beyond Borders – The Saar as a Worker’, the question of rivers’ rights is understood not merely as a legal issue, but as a cultural and social challenge. The project is curated by the writer and artist Camille de Toledo, who is internationally renowned for his work on political ecology and new forms of legal representation for nature. Through initiatives such as the ‘Parliament of the Loire’ and the ‘International of Rivers’, de Toledo has been exploring for years how natural habitats can be conceived of as legal actors.
The Saar as a legal entity?
For centuries, the Saar has carried ships, supplied industrial plants with water, shaped landscapes and enabled economic development across national borders. But what changes when a river is no longer conceived solely as an object, but as a subject – albeit a multifaceted one: as part of a complex web of ecological processes, historical experiences, social relationships and political decisions?
These questions are at the heart of the public forum on 4 July at Kulturgut Ost. From 11 am, the Mayor of the state capital Saarbrücken, Barbara Meyer, and University President Professor Ludger Santen will open the event. The programme will bring together short seed talks – including one by Camille de Toledo – panel discussions, workshops and exhibition formats in an open, participatory experiment.
“How we protect ecosystems and rethink our relationship with nature is one of the most pressing questions of our time. At the same time, in the face of multiple crises, ecological concerns are increasingly being sidelined in public discourse. This initiative addresses this issue and invites us to develop new perspectives: How might our relationship with nature change? How could we better protect water systems if we let rivers ‘speak’ for themselves and grant them the status of legal entities? By addressing these questions together with a wide range of stakeholders, we aim to strengthen civil society and give new impetus to political ecology.” (Project organisers: Sima Reinisch, Director of the Goethe-Institut Nancy, and Markus Messling, Director of the Käte Hamburger Centre).
The event brings together academia, art, environmental policy and civil society in a cross-border celebration. In interactive workshops, art historian Yi-Ting Wang (CURE/Saarland University), designer Isabelle Charpentier (CNRS), ecologist Guido Geisen (NABU Saarland), actor Laurent Barthel (Weltveränderer e. V.) and sound artist and designer Régis Lemberthe will explore different approaches to the River Saar – ranging from computer games and environmental observations to water analyses and speculative future scenarios in which the River Saar is conceived as a political actor with rights of its own. In the subsequent panel discussions, Camille de Toledo, environmental law expert Helen Arling, lawyer and Greenpeace spokesperson for socio-ecological justice Baro Gabbert, NABU regional chair Corinna Heyer, and Ralf Beil, Director-General of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte, will take part. The focus will be on the implications of such a legal reassessment for environmental policy, society and the relationship between humans and nature.
The project is supported by 16 partners from Germany, France and Luxembourg, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte, the Haute école des arts du Rhin and the Musée national d’histoire naturelle Luxembourg. The programme invites participants to perceive the river in a new light: not merely as a landscape or infrastructure, but as a historically evolved, vulnerable yet capable system that connects people, animals, plants, technology and political institutions.
The Käte Hamburger Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at Saarland University is a research institute in the fields of cultural and social sciences funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). Its work centres on the question of how people and societies deal with wounds and irreparable damage. Against a backdrop of wars, genocides, the destruction of cultural heritage and languages, as well as global challenges such as global warming and species extinction, international researchers and artists explore creative forms of societal engagement with loss, historical guilt and global responsibility. Cultural practices – such as storytelling, music, theatre and exhibitions – are at the heart of the research, as they give voice to individual and collective experiences and can bring together conflicting perspectives. The aim of this collaborative research is to develop a comprehensive socio-political understanding of individual and collective issues of reparation in a globalised world.
Camille de Toledo is a writer, artist and curator. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Université Paris Cité. He teaches narrative arts at the École nationale supérieure des arts visuels – La Cambre in Brussels and was appointed lecturer in eco-poetics at the University of Aix-Marseille in 2022. In 2008, he founded the European Authors’ Societies (GESAC) to promote ‘translation as a language’. He also wrote the libretto for the opera ‘La Chute de Fukuyama’ (2013) and the play ‘Sur une île’ (2016, German version ‘Auf der Insel’ performed at the Primeurs Festival in Saarbrücken in 2017) about the Utøya massacre, as well as the diptych PRLMNT on the collapse of the European Union and its political reorganisation through cross-species institutions, through which natural entities and ecosystems are recognised as legal entities. His novel “Thésée, sa vie nouvelle” (Verdier, 2020) was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt and won the Franz Hessel Prize in 2021. *Le fleuve qui voulait écrire* (Les liens qui libèrent/Manuella Éditions/Flammarion, 2021/2024) was a finalist for the environmental book prize awarded by the newspaper *Le Nouvel Observateur*. The book documents and articulates the Loire Parliament project, which is now being continued with *L’Internationale des rivières* (Verdier, 2026) and reflects de Toledo’s long-standing commitment to the recognition of European rivers as legal entities. In 2028, he will curate Bourges, the European Capital of Culture.
Background:
In 2017, New Zealand recognised the Whanganui River as a legal entity for the first time. Since then, the legal status of rivers has undergone profound changes in various regions of the world. In the Americas, Asia and Europe, rivers, forests and ecosystems have been explicitly recognised as legal entities. Despite significant differences in scope, rationale and enforceability, these approaches point to a common trend: an expansion of the concept of law beyond traditional regimes of ownership and protection.
Event:
Rivers Beyond Borders – The Saar as a Worker
4 July 2026, from 11.00 am
Kulturgut Ost, An d. Römerbrücke 5, 66121 Saarbrücken https://cure.uni-saarland.de/veranstaltungen/die-saar-als-arbeiterin-la-sarre-ouvriere/
Press and interview enquiries:
Anna Warum (Science Communication and Public Relations)
Käte Hamburger Centre for Cultural Practices (CURE)
Tel.: +49 (0)681 302-3372
anna.warum@khk.uni-saarland.de