BatoLabo, a travelling laboratory exploring waterways through the arts, the humanities and citizenship

How is a river doing? The question may seem strange. Yet today it lies at the heart of much scientific research and community-led initiatives. In France and across Europe, researchers, artists and local residents are experimenting with new ways of understanding and protecting river ecosystems. This concern is of particular importance in the European context, where rivers have undergone, over the last two centuries, profound changes to their morphology and a massive deterioration in the quality and diversity of their biotopes (Linton, 2010; Petts, 1989; Tockner et al., 2009; Vörösmarty et al., 2010). Among these initiatives, several projects complement and extend one another along the Loire, notably the collective ‘Vers un parlement de Loire’, the various editions of ‘La Grande Remontée de Loire’, and the recognition of Loire nautical knowledge as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). It is within this dynamic that the scientific and artistic expedition BatoLabo emerged, a travelling laboratory from the Loire to the Danube. This river laboratory invites us to rethink the way in which human societies observe, narrate and care for rivers through a scientific protocol and artistic interventions that contribute to the Fluvioscope research project, supported by the National Network of Houses of Social Sciences and Humanities (RnMSH) and coordinated by the MSH Val de Loire alongside six other MSHs (Alsace, Ange-Guépin, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Clermont-Ferrand, Paris-Nord and Mondes).