Between 2016 and 2018, as part of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation's "Art Citoyen" programme, the project Les Travailleurs de la Mer was set up. The result of numerous encounters between researchers and artists, this project allowed artists and scientists to explore how working together modifies their reciprocal research and offers new ways of apprehending and inhabiting the maritime space. Understanding biodiversity and the interactions between organisms are major challenges today in order to appreciate the functioning of ecosystems and to preserve, restore or sustainably exploit biological resources. Art and science, a double look at a universal issue: understanding and inhabiting the sea.

The artist Nicolas Floc'h who is at the heart of this project, works on the world of fishing, particularly on artificial reefs. The aim of the project is to take as a starting point his artistic work built on the observation of scientific research. How can scientists in turn appropriate an artistic work linked to their universe to question their practice? This transdisciplinary collaborative project, particularly around the notion of Satoumi, the Japanese Integrated Coastal Management Zone, has allowed us to explore how working together modifies practices, ways of cultivating, harvesting, and inhabiting the maritime space in a concrete perspective of proposals for the sustainable management of fisheries. The project also included round tables, a residency research trip to Japan, publications, field visits and a citizen collaboration project on the Côte d’Opale (North France).