“Run or Face It? Art and Resilience at the University”

Featuring Marie Guillemin, a member of the Fetart collective and co-artistic director of the Circulation(s) festival in Paris; Hugo Sinatora, cultural projects manager in the Art & Culture Department; and artist Mathis Benestebe.

To conclude the exhibition *La peine* by Mathis Benestebe, a photographer who has been an artist-in-residence atUM September 2024, we invite you to attend a special panel discussion.

In a world that is both bewildering and unsettling—amid political crises, violence, and eco-anxiety—artist Mathis Benestebe explores the temptation to escape: crafting a spacesuit to break free from reality, to isolate oneself, to survive in a different way. Through his project *La peine*, he uses the absurd to depict the desire to find a way out, even if it is impossible. A subtle way of helping us understand that a collective response would be more beneficial to us. This work is part of the cultural initiatives led by the University of Montpellier, which is dedicated to opening up creative spaces to the collective. Artist residencies also become opportunities for encounter, allowing everyone to explore other ways of looking at the world and the crises we are facing.