Context and objectif
The Covid-19 pandemic
In just a few weeks, the Covid-19 pandemic paralyzed France and the world. Because of its duration and the intensity of the measures taken during several months, it constitutes a major anthropological rupture for our societies, with lasting consequences.
In order to move forward and think about the future, the Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute is undertaking a reflection on the pandemic. The challenge is to assemble a digital memory of a historical fact experienced by all, and thus to create something held in common. The Institute brings together civil society organizations and researchers to explore the Covid-19 pandemic together.
The Institute is open to the testimonies of everyone, in all possible formats: writing, photos, videos, audio, etc.
Genesis
Birth of the Institute
The Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute was conceived by Laëtitia Atlani-Duault, its president. In April 2020, she made a fundamental observation: the Covid-19 pandemic constitutes a major anthropological rupture. The crisis is not only one of health: it’s impacts are social, economic, cultural, scientific and legal, and its implications must be considered in the long term. Faced with tragic historical events that have been erased from the collective memory, it is necessary to remember together this historic moment in our lives. The creation of a digital place of memory is essential.
This project, led by Laetitia Atlani-Duault and supported by two honorary chairs, Prof. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Prof. Jean-François Delfraissy and a multi-disciplinary executive team, strives to bring together the scientific and business communities and civil society to reflect collectively on the major effects of the pandemic. The task is also to analyse, in a retrospective and analytical way, the consequences of the virus circulation on our daily life. A wide range of organizations and individuals have joined this academic initiative.
WHY AD MEMORIAM?
The COVID-19 Ad Memoriam Institute was created in order not to forget. Concern about collective forgetting has been eloquently expressed by Prof. Jean-François Delfraissy, the Honorary Chair of the Institute: “Forgetting is something that can happen very quickly. We must not surrender to time. Citizens will want to forget this period of great fear and we can understand that. But what happened in these exceptional circumstances cannot be forgotten. We must quickly lay the foundations for new processes of reflection and investigation.”
Approach
Remembering to continue living, in a globalized society that remains unified over time.
The Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute aims to collect, archive and analyse the traces and memories of the pandemic.
In just a few weeks, the Covid-19 pandemic paralyzed the world. Because of its duration and the intensity of the measures taken during several months, it constitutes a major anthropological rupture for our societies, with lasting consequences.
In order to move forward and think about the future, the Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute brings together multiple worlds (research, health, law, justice, associations, major religious communities and currents of thought, artists, etc.) to think about the Covid-19 pandemic and to build the common together. The Institute’s vocation is to constitute a place of digital memory of the Covid-19 pandemic..
The work of the COVID-19 Ad Memoriam Institute is organized around three objectives.
To remember
The Institute is a space for preserving history and maintaining the memory of events related to the epidemic. It maintains the memory of the acts of courage and dedication that have helped mitigate the effects of the pandemic and contribute to outlining sustainable solutions for the future.
A digital site of memory, it integrates all perceptions of the Covid-19 pandemic, forginge a collective memory that includes all realities of the health crisis. The ambition is to give a collective dimension to the traumatic changes and personal disruptions (separation, distancing, death, mourning…) in order to repair the breakages in social, educational, economic and political relations.
Working with all the actors and contributors, the Institute encourages reflection and the collective invention of commemorative practices.
Research to Understand
How could the Covid-19 pandemic paralyze our world in just a few months?
Faced with an invisible agent, health precautions have changed our relationship to finitude and death. In particular, they have disrupted the practice of rituals that allow societies to overcome major traumas. Everyone has been affected by the pandemic in his or her own way (distance, isolation, mourning, difficult or even unbearable living conditions, distancing from personal and professional relationships, loss of reference points, masked faces, social, economic and psychological tragedies…).
The Institute focuses on our stories and invites everyone to come and tell their own Covid-19 reality.
Understanding in order to act
Like the great conflicts and epidemics of the past, Covid-19 accelerates the changes that affect our societies – changes that are in themselves challenges. It is necessary for societies to reinvent themselves and to think further ahead in the face of new practices and lifestyles that are taking hold, such as telemedicine, teleworking and distance learning.
The ambition of the Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute is to bring together research and a broad range of lived experience in order to understand and act. Everyone has a role to play.
