Event
21.05.2026: deBuren, Brussels, BE
What happens when a war ends? Armed conflicts affect not only people and infrastructure, but also ecosystems. Soils are poisoned, water sources destroyed, and farmland rendered unusable: the destruction of nature is rarely mere collateral damage, but often a structural part of conflict. Even when the weapons fall silent, that ecological devastation continues to have an impact. Nature becomes an invisible occupied zone, one to which communities cannot return and where life remains impossible for a long time.
This debate explores ecocide through war: the large-scale and often long-lasting destruction of ecosystems caused by armed conflict. The French city of Verdun shows how deep these scars can run. More than a century after the First World War, the so-called zone rouge remains inaccessible: millions of unexploded shells and contaminated soils make agriculture and habitation impossible. Similar patterns can still be seen across the world today, from destroyed farmland and water infrastructure to deforestation, chemical pollution, and massive emissions caused by military activities.
Yet environmental damage caused by war is rarely punished. Although international law already recognizes it as a war crime, the conditions are so strict that prosecutions almost never succeed in practice. That is why calls are growing to recognize ecocide as a separate international crime: not only punishable on paper, but also legally enforceable in practice.
The debate brings together perspectives from art, law, and research, with artist and researcher Marjolijn Dijkman, environmental crime expert Babs Verhoeve, architect and researcher Omar Ferwati (Forensic Architecture), and artist and researcher Shayma Nader, moderated by Selma Franssen (deBuren).
This event will be held in English.
This program is part of the series The Foragers, organized by VUB Crosstalks.
The Foragers: Engagements Beyond the Human invites you to rediscover your relationship with our environment — not just in remote wilderness, but in the overlooked spaces of everyday urban life. This interdisciplinary art-science project brings together artists, researchers, and enthusiasts who reclaim the ancient practice of foraging as a bold, imaginative, and future-facing method.
deBuren
Date: 21.05.2026
Time: 19:30 – 21:00
Location: deBuren, Leopoldstraat 6, Brussel
