2024

EMBRACING TRANSMATERIAL FUTURES SYMPOSIUM

Narratives on Hybridity and the Labyrinth of Interconnectedness

Kapellica Gallery, Ljubljana (SI)

Organized by the Kersnikova Institute – within the framework of the ‘Inspiration Forum Lab’ and co-financed by the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana.

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In the framework of the ‘Inspiration Forum Lab’ project, we are hosting a symposium where invited speakers will present their explorations on the transformative potentials of the – human – concept from the perspective of contemporary artistic and unconventional discourses and practices. The speakers will draw attention to the need to deconstruct dominant narratives of human culpability in the ecological crisis and to challenge the notion that the entire human species is responsible for the destructive paths we have tread upon. In 30-minute presentations, they will highlight how deeply the practices of colonialism and capitalism are ingrained with technodualistic mindsets that breed discrimination and destructive environmental exploitation.

 

The symposium will feature artists, researchers, and a scientist whose work embrace the wisdom of diverse knowledge systems, including diasporas futurisms, indigenous traditions, and creative thinking. The speakers will speak about narratives where science, fiction, and spirituality collide, to challenge techno biases that homogenize definitions of the human. The aim of the symposium is to present the need for the hybridization of human identity alongside transmaterials perspectives of the body, which advocate for life entanglements between “living” and “non-living” forms.

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Talks:

->> The (Power Plant) Village, an Embodied Quantum Fiction? by Isabel Burr Raty

->> Dissociative Fugues: Another Look at First Encounters, Spaceships and Time Travel in Science Fiction by Peggy Pierrot

->> Becoming Data Diva: Developing Semi-fictional Alter Egos as Fabulous Artistic Research Tools by Antye Guenther

->> On Syntropy by Andrej Detela

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2022 

WRAP UP OF A ROCK/STAR TOUR

MARIA QUIÑELEN MAPUCHE MEDICINE WOMAN GUEST VISIT

KVS Theater, Brussels (BE)

Supported by KVS theater, ERG, nadine, GC Wabo

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María Quiñelén is a feminist and activist Mapuche Medicine woman who has been invited by artist and researcher Isabel Burr Raty in a joint endeavour with apass, ERG, wabo, nadine and KVS to carry out a series of activities during November 2022.

 

Maria’s practice involves knowledge about the arts of medicinal plants and magic, questions about autonomy, resistance and community, repair and friendship, the micro and macro cosmos. And, as part of the Mapuche community, she is at the forefront of the survival and ecological fight/crisis and is spokesperson of her people.

 

The evening at KVS invited all participants of the activities María met at:

ERG (master students workshop/dialogue)

GC Wabo (Womb knowledges from the Andes workshop co-organized with An Mertens)

a.pass (EARTH workshop/gathering)

KVS (research exchange meeting with Moya Michael)

 

This gathering included a conversation and dialogue with María and her assistant Marcela Vargas, facilitated by Gerardo Salinas, KVS dramaturg, and Isabel, about her presence in Brussels and her interest in the arts, as well as an intervention with Moya Michael (KVS resident) and a closing ritual.

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2022

TOPOS 4 SCI FI OF THE BODY

wpZimmer, Antwerpen (BE)

Suppoted by Flemish Authorities, The City of Antwerp and c-Takt

 

With TOPOS, wpZimmer is shaping a collective residency in which various artists are invited to come together around a theme.

 

For this fourth edition, wpZimmer invited artist Isabel Burr Raty as curator to shape the TOPOS around questions from her practice. Isabel's work presents the sci-fi of the body as a theme.

In the process of shaping the TOPOS she was assisted by co-curators Ingrid Vranken and Gosie Vervloessem (wpZimmer). Together they invited Antye Guenther, Peggy Pierrot, Olave Nduwanje and ooooo – all with their respective practices – to engage in thinking about the more-than-human. Their questions always bring them back to the body: What do we mean, feel and think when we talk about our body?

 

TOPOS 4 presents the body as inherently Sci-Fi, an entanglement of micro and macro entities and performativities considered 'natural' and 'artificial', 'human' and 'non-human', 'organic' and ' synthetic', 'analogue' and 'virtual’.

This collective residency aims to bring together a small group of people to work on perceiving the body as a multitude. It is about questioning the role of the body in creating affinity through difference. How can we practice disidentification by centering the body?

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2022

BLOCK III HOME – STREET – EARTH

a.pass Brussels (BE)

Curatorial assemblage radical_house, Martine Petrovic, Isabel Burr Raty

 

HOME is a mentoring proposition by and at Radical_House, who propose to take this environment as a setting to look at the inheritances our practices stem from.

STREET stands for collective life. How do we organize ourselves in structures made by ‘elective affinity’? The mode of study is a visit to Documenta, and a series of dinners organized by  Martina Petrovic with Brussels based collectives.

EARTH is organized by Isabel Burr Raty in a weeklong workshop focusing on the substance that constitutes and threatens (non)human life: carbon.

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2021

BLOCK II NOT IN THE MOOD

a.pass Brussels (BE)

Curated by Isabel Burr Raty, Adrijana Gvozdenović, Antye Guenther, Sara Manente, Rob Ritzen, Sina Seifee

 

We do a block curation that pays specific attention to the affective and emotional dimensions of research and knowledge production, which we call here “mood”. Not only do humans have their moods and mood swings, but more-than-human, eco-synth-tech systems, and also climates and markets have it, too. By thinking and proposing practices with and about mood, we are navigating with and within affective interactions, imperfections, subjectivities and sensations of making oneself orient in the research environment and the world.

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2020

TO DO OR NOT TO DO? RESISTANCE AND CARE

Online

Supported by Beauty Kit, radical_house (Heike Langsdorf & Simone Basani), The Monastery (Elke Van Campenhout), nadine, ZSenne art lab and culturele activiteitenpremie Vlaamse Gemeenschap

 

In times of crisis, do we or do we not resist and care?
Does an artist need to reinvent her/them/him-self?
Have you become: the online streaming master? the bureaucratic secretary? the radical artist?
Is this what we do? Is this making sense?...

 

“To do or not to do?” is a three day event where Resistance and Care are discussed and explored from various geographical locations, cultural landscapes and artistic discourses.

Through online brunch lectures and open fires we want to refresh and broaden our perspectives on the current situation we are experiencing, renew our imaginary and gain strength beyond our current four walls location.

On 19, 20, 21 December 2020 you are invited at brunch time to participate in the lecture of the three invitees. In the afternoon curated open fires resonate with the ideas introduced at the bruch lectures to dig dipper, and let the flames speak towards winter solstice.

 

DAY 1 – Resistance & the Collective

Brunch lecture with lawyer Leo Crippa including 30 min Q&A

DAY 2 – Resistance & Subversion

Brunch lecture with artist activist Sumugan Sivanesan 

DAY 3 – Resistance & Persistence

Brunch lecture with artist and monk Elke Van Campenhout