Agnès Poirier
Notre-Dame. Past and Future of a National Symbol
Agnès Poirier, writer, London,
in conversation with Andreas Köstler and Rüdiger Zill, Potsdam
The event will take place at the Einstein Forum. In-person attendees are asked to wear a medical mask.
The conversation will be live-streamed on Zoom. (Please register here to participate.)
The fire that broke out at the Notre-Dame cathedral in April 2019 not only left a great monument to art and culture severely damaged; the misfortune struck at a national symbol encapsulating the history of France—and for many, its very soul. Agnès Poirier traces the eventful history of the cathedral from the start of its construction, in 1163, to the French Revolution, the coronation of Napoleon, and the Second World War. A first-hand witness to the fire, she provides insights into the cathedral’s past and into the debates about its reconstruction and future.
Agnès Poirier was born in Paris in 1975. She studied at the London School of Economics and has worked as a freelance writer in London and Paris since 1998. Her writing has appeared in Le Monde, the Guardian, and the Times, among other publications. She is the author of Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940–1950 (2018) and Notre-Dame: The Soul of France (2020).
Andreas Köstler has been a professor of art history at the University of Potsdam since 2005. In addition to art history, he has a background in classical archaeology and medieval history.
Rüdiger Zill is researcher at the Einstein Forum, Potsdam. Most recently published: Der absolute Leser. Hans Blumenberg – eine intellektuelle Biographie (2020); Future Worlds. Science . Fiction . Film (Mit-Hg. 2017)
The event will be held in English.