February 2026
Research
Seminars
Michel Serres, philosopher of science and technology 2
This seminar, organized by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Sophie Bancquart, extends and complements the 2023 seminar, which shed light on Michel Serres’ relationship with science and technology. The goal of this second session is to finalize a collaborative book. Indeed, despite the popularity of the author of Petite Poucette, Michel Serres is entirely absent from philosophical studies in France, while he is the subject of numerous works in other countries. The challenge, therefore, is to situate Michel Serres within the great French tradition of the philosophy of science and technology.
What if? The possibilities of history and social sciences in the service of analyzing contemporary crises
For the past thirty years, the world has been experiencing a period of uncertainty marked by economic, political, and environmental crises that challenge the very idea of progress and blur the line between reality and fiction. In this context, counterfactual reasoning—imagining what would have happened if the past had been different—is playing an increasingly important role. Both a symptom of anxiety about the future and a fruitful intellectual tool, it lies at the intersection of history, science, literature, and the arts. This seminar, organized by Pierre Singaravélou and Quentin Deluermoz, proposes a collective exploration of these different forms of counterfactual reasoning in order to better understand contemporary crises and broaden the possibilities of the present.
Research residency
The “global potential for forest restoration”. Describing the world and prescribing its uses.
Faced with climate change, large-scale tree planting is being considered as a carbon sequestration solution, which raises the question of where to plant. Nassima Adbelghafour‘s residency project aims to analyze how different actors map “global forest restoration potentials” and the associated scientific controversies. By focusing on the counterfactual and prescriptive dimensions of these potentials, it examines the construction of a geopolitics of carbon, at the intersection of scientific knowledge and political choices about desirable futures. [learn more]
Creation
Author’s residency
Adèle Yon
In February, we will welcome Adèle Yon. Born in 1994 in Paris, Adèle Yon investigates, writes, cooks, and teaches. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and a researcher in film studies, she began writing while working on her thesis at the SACRe research-creation laboratory.
In My Real Name Is Elisabeth (Éditions du Sous-Sol), published in February 2025, Adèle Yon recounts her investigation into the psychiatric history of her great-grandmother, Elisabeth, diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1950s, lobotomized, and institutionalized for 17 years. In this hybrid novel-thesis, Adèle Yon presents a situated research project, revealing its construction, its process, and the emotions that permeate it.
Adèle Yon also works as a chef in Paris and the Sarthe region. During her residency at the Fondation des Treilles, she will work on writing her next book. [learn more]
Photography residency
Revealing of the 2026 winners
The winners of the Photography Residency Prize and the Escourbiac/Fondation des Treilles Prize will be announced at our partner Initial Labo on February 12, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. (62, avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, Boulogne-Billancourt).
Prints made by Dana Cojbuc, Aurélia Frey, and Éponine Momenceau during their residencies in 2025 will be exhibited from January 27 to February 14. [learn more]
Exhibition
Les Treilles, at the origins of the museum of folk arts and traditions
Exhibition in Draguignan, from February 7 to April 25, 2026
This exhibition will explore the connection between the history of the Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions in Draguignan and the Treilles Foundation. Inaugurated in 1984, the project actually originated about ten years earlier during the stays at the Treilles estate of Georges Henri Rivière, founder of the Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions in Paris. He was a friend of Anne Gruner Schlumberger, with whom he shared a passion for preserving the legacy of ancestral skills. Together they collected tools, pottery, basketry, esparto grass work, clothing, and cotton fabrics, with the aim of exhibiting them in the future museum.
Calls for application
2027 author’s residency
Each year, the Foundation hosts three fiction or non-fiction authors in residence for a period of two to three months. To learn about the application process, click here.
For each call for applications, please refer to the application guidelines. [learn more]