The accompanying TALK SHOW programme to the exhibition project The Camille Diaries
Curated
and hosted by Isabel de Sena
This
3-part event series pays tribute to the powerful alternative images
of mothering we've inherited through the pioneering work of feminist
Sci-Fi writers, most notably regarding their defiance of conventions
on (technological) reproduction, child-rearing, the maternal body,
and sexuality, as well as their invention of ecofeminism and myriad
forms of transspecies kinship.
Rather than a nostalgic reflection, the events examine these authors'
sustained relevance within the current sociocultural and political
landscape, inviting experts from divergent fields (visual arts,
gender-studies, literature, biotechnology and political science)
to programme their "ideal TV and reading evening" on the
topic.
Through a live Talk Show format, the selected footage and live readings
are interspersed with conversation, so that the audience (re)discovers
the works through the guest's eyes.
Invited Guests & Schedule
27 August 2020, 6 - 8 pm: Mary Maggic (Artist)
24 September 2020, 6 - 8 pm: Alison Sperling (Scholar
| Literature and Gender Studies)
13 October 2020, 6 - 8 pm: Noemi Yoko Molitor (Artist
and Scholar | Post-Colonial Studies and Queer Art)
Mary Maggic with Isabel de Sena. Photo by Franz Reimer.
Mary Maggic. Photo by Franz Reimer.
Alison Sperling with Isabel de Sena.Photo by Franz Reimer.
Noemi Molitor with Isabel de Sena. Photo by Clara Reimer.
THE
CAMILLE DIARIES Symposium will discuss new artistic projects
by eleven international women and non-binary artists (installations,
video, objects, performance), currently exhibited in our show The
Camille Diaries. Current Artistic Positions on M/otherhood, Life
and Care (until 4 October 2020).
Reflecting
on the current conditions of our world (environmental changes, gender
aspects, biopolitics, etc.), the artists' positions propose an 'aesthetics
of care' as the basis for inter-species coexistence. Here, the planet
is understood as a symbiotic web in which we are all entangled with
one another (humans, plants, animals, environment) – on molecular,
organic, ethical and biopolitical levels. The artistic positions
investigate reproductive mechanisms, biochemical connections between
humans and nonhumans, and refer to alternative biomaterials as "source
of life" in future times of scarcity and crisis. The title
"The Camille Diaries" alludes to the "Camille Stories"
the final chapter of "Staying with the Trouble" (2016)
by philosopher and biologist Donna Haraway, a speculative future
where a dwindling human population replaces births with care between
species. Each "Camille" cares for the genetic material
of an endangered species (the monarch butterfly) by storing parts
of that material in their own DNA.
The one-day symposium will bring the artists together with researchers
from the humanities and natural sciences into a critical dialogue.
In different panels we will discuss alternative concepts of m/others,
wombs and placentas, fluid inheritance and modes of care. We will
reflect on genetic and biochemical exchanges between human and nonhuman,
both part of and remedy for the Anthropocene. Here the theme of
biotechnological transfigurations of human bodies places the human
being on the periphery and rather directs our full attention to
other living beings – a basic understanding of other species
and organisms from a feminist perspective. On the basis of the exhibited
works, we will discuss concepts of "Collective survival"
and "Arts of noticing" (A. Tsing), "Staying with
the Trouble" (D. Haraway), and in particular “Bodies of
water” connected to hydrofeminism (A. Neimanis).
Concept
of Symposium: Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz
0:00 Introduction | Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz 16:46 Introductory Talk | Astrida Neimanis 1:23:25 Panel A | M/others, Wombs and Placentas 2:57:16 Panel B | Fluid Inheritance
4:26:04 Panel C | Modes of Care 6:28:07 M/others and Future Humans | Eben Kirksey 7:08:15 Final Discussion | Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz
Team: Regine Rapp, Christian de Lutz, Tuçe Erel, Linus Kaufhold, Palooka Frank, Natacha Lamounier Ribeiro, Ayla Warncke
Associated project partners:The project THE CAMILLE DIARIES arose from a generous invitation to take part in the international curatorial swarm for the open call »M/others and Future Humans«, initiated by Ida Bencke (LABAE,Copenhagen, DK) and Eben Kirksey (Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, USA).
Realised with the generous funding of the German Capital City Funds, The Berlin Senate Office for Culture and Europe and the Slovene Cultural Center in Berlin.
Special thanks to Tim Deussen Media partners: art-in-berlin.de, www.art-in-berlin.de AVIVA-Berlin Online Magazin für Frauen, www.aviva-berlin.de
Ai
Hasegawa | Baum & Leahy |
Cecilia Jonsson | Margherita Pevere | Mary Maggic | Naja Ryde Ankarfeldt | Nicole Clouston | Sonia Levy
| Špela Petrič| Tarah Rhoda
Mary Maggic:
Milik Bersama Rekombinan, 2019, installation
The exhibition and the symposium The Camille Diaries. Current
Artistic Positions on M/otherhood, Life and Care discuss
new artistic works by eleven international women and non-binary
artists (installations, video, objects, performance). Reflecting
on the current conditions of our world (environmental changes, gender
aspects, biopolitics, etc.), the artists' positions propose an 'aesthetics
of care' as the basis for inter-species coexistence. Here, the planet
is understood as a symbiotic web in which we are all entangled with
one another (humans, plants, animals, environment) - on molecular,
organic, ethical and biopolitical levels. The artistic positions
investigate reproductive mechanisms, biochemical connections between
humans and nonhumans, and refer to alternative biomaterials as "source
of life" in future times of scarcity and crisis.
The exhibition title "The Camille Diaries" alludes to
the "Camille Stories" the final chapter of "Staying
with the Trouble" (2016) by philosopher and biologist Donna
Haraway, a speculative future where a dwindling human population
replaces births with care between species. Each "Camille"
cares for the genetic material of an endangered species (the monarch
butterfly) by storing parts of that material in their own DNA.
In the exhibition artists explore genetic and biochemical exchange
between human and non-human, a both part of and remedy for the Anthropocene.
Here the theme of biotechnological transfigurations of human bodies
places the human being on the periphery and rather directs our full
attention to other living beings. This creates - and this is central
to the planned series of events - a basic understanding of other
species and organisms from a feminist perspective.
Online
Symposium THE
CAMILLE DIARIES
26 September 2020, 10 am – 7:45 pm (CET Time Zone), with livestream
The one-day symposium will bring the artists together with researchers
from the humanities and natural sciences into a critical dialogue.
On the basis of the exhibited works, concepts of "Collective
survival" and "Arts of noticing" (A. Tsing) as well
as "Staying with the Trouble" (D. Haraway) and “Bodies
of water” connected to hydrofeminism (A. Neimanis) will be
discussed in an interdisciplinary manner.
-Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz
Sonia
Levy: For the Love of Corals, 2018, video installation
Exhibition
view Art Laboratory Berlin. Left: Cecilia Jonsson and Rodrigo Leite
de Oliveira: HAEM, 2016, mixed media installation including
custom made compass, text, sound, HD–video; right: Tarah Rhoda:
Ourglass, 2017, installation, spinach, ethanol, IV bag, volumetric
flask, syringe, ultraviolet light
Exhibition
view Art Laboratory Berlin. Left: Margherita Pevere: From the series
Wombs_W.01, 2018, laboratory glassware, living bacterial, culture,
microbial biofilm, the artist's urine extract, silicone tube, metal
wireright: Ai Hasegawa: I Wanna Deliver a Dolphin..., 2011–13,
video
Exhibition
view Art Laboratory Berlin. Left: Nicole Clouston: Mud (Berlin),
2018-20; right: Margherita Pevere: From the series Wombs_W.01,
2018, and Wombs_W03 ,2019.
All photos (c) by Tim Deussen for Art Laboratory Berlin
Team: Regine Rapp, Christian de Lutz, Tuçe Erel, Linus Kaufhold, Palooka Frank Natacha, Lamounier Ribeiro, Ayla Warncke
Associated project partners:OKK, Berlin, PA 58 Berlin. The project THE CAMILLE DIARIES arose from a generous invitation to take part in the international curatorial swarm for the open call »M/others and Future Humans«, initiated by Ida Bencke (LABAE,Copenhagen, DK) and Eben Kirksey (Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, USA).
Realised
with the generous funding of the German Capital City Funds, The Berlin
Senate Office for Culture and Europe and the Slovene Cultural Center in
Berlin.
Media partners: art-in-berlin.de, www.art-in-berlin.de AVIVA-Berlin Online Magazin für Frauen, www.aviva-berlin.de
3 July - 28 December 2020 Opening:
2 July 2020, 6PM via Facebook
Live
Curated
by Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz
FUTURIUM
| Futurium Lab, Alexanderufer 2, 10117 Berlin
Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun 10 am – 6 pm, Thu 10 am – 8 pm,
Tue closed, Free entrance
The Artist- and Design-Residencies of Mind the Fungi
with artist Theresa Schubert and artist designer Fara Peluso bring
in art and design as constructive sources of ideas for this research
project. Schubert studied the effects of sound on fungal growth.
Peluso has done research on new biomaterials on the symbiotic basis
of algae and fungi. The artistic and design related works are a
result of a close collaboration with both departments of TU Berlin’s
Institute of Biotechnology – Prof. Vera Meyer’s department
of Applied Molecular Microbiology and Prof. Peter Neubauer’s
department Bioprocess Engineering.
Theresa
Schubert, Sound for Fungi. Homage to Indeterminacy,2020
Theresa
Schubert, Sound for Fungi. Homage to Indeterminacy,2020
Theresa
Schubert, Sound for Fungi. Homage to Indeterminacy,2020
Theresa
Schubert, Sketches and object from the project Box Experiment,
2020
For artist Theresa Schubert fungi are perfect network metaphors,
not only due to their aesthetics but also as a philosophy of relations,
process and space. For her Box Experiment she built soundproofed
boxes with speakers and selected fungi mycelia stemming from the
public Walk & Talks. For several weeks she exposed fungi to
specific sound frequencies. Schubert was excited to see this had
an effect on mycelial growth and metabolism. From this she developed
the interactive video installation Sound for fungi. Homage to
Indeterminacy that stimulates virtual fungi hyphae and via a
hand tracking sensor letting visitors take on the role of a sound,
modulating the hyphae growth and movement.
Fara Peluso, Zweisamkeit (foreground), Niche (background),
2020
Fara Peluso, Niche, 2020
Fara Peluso, The Poetry of Landscape, drawings; Biomaterial
made from mycelium and diatomit, 2020
Artist designer Fara Peluso works in Material Driven Design
and Bioart and connects human beings with nature, organisms and
biological processes. Niche is a hybrid installation and
living sculpture, which explores co-existence between fungi and
algae microorganisms. Taking inspiration from symbiotic relationship
between these organisms in lichens, Peluso combines nature, biotechnology
and art. The sculpture Zweisamkeit combines an oak wood topography
and several layers of biomaterial representing form in metamorphosis.
It reflects on human development of the landscape, focusing on how
we have defined and shaped our natural surroundings, but are in
turn shaped by biological forces in the environment.
New
findings and objects fromLaboratorien of the Institute of Biotechnology,
TU Berlin: Prototype of a bike helmet made form tree mushroom mycelium
by Bastian Schubert (Applied and Molecular Microbiology)
New
findings and objects fromLaboratorien of the Institute of Biotechnology,
TU Berlin: Samples of symbiotic organisms
from lichens (Bioprocess Engineering)
In addition to the work of Schubert and Peluso, the exhibition also
presents new results from the laboratories of the Institute of Biotechnology
at TU Berlin, for example, a prototype of a bicycle helmet made
of tree mushroom mycelium by Bastian Schubert (Dep. Applied and
Molecular Microbiology) or examples of symbiotic organisms in lichens
(Dep. Bioprocess Engineering).
with
Amy Youngs, Ken Rinaldo, Anna Paltseva, Daniel Lammel,
Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz
4
June 2020, 4-6 pm CET / 10-12 am EDT
Can we break
away from current agricultural practices which are intimately connected
to desertification, water and soil pollution, antibiotic resistance, climate
change and social and economic inequalities? In a two-hour discussion we
are interested in considering a sustainable, multispecies perspective to
farming, which could start in the soil and progress through thinking about
the multiple ways we can consider food. Aquaponics, vertical farming, worms,
soldier flies, and permaculture offer real solutions, where food is grown
while respecting living beings, and the intertwined ecologies that support
them.
Humane
food can be grown in urban or rural communities, though the soil is
critical. How can we learn and care about living beings we cannot quickly
know or see? What is care like in practice? We are also interested in exploring
the concept of "citizen eco-artist" as so much of what we do resides
in the spaces between actual science, sustainable practice and speculative
fiction. (More information)
Speakers:
Amy
Youngs is an Associate Professor in art and technology at Ohio State
University. She uses electronics, kinetics, insects, plants and pixels to
create artwork about the changing relationships between technology, nature
and self. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and
her essays about art and biology have been published in Leonardo and Nouvel
Objet.
Ken
Rinaldo is internationally recognized for interactive art installations
developing hybrid ecologies with humans, algorithms, plants, animals, and
bacterial cultures. His art/science practice serves as a platform for hacking
complex social, biological, and machine symbionts. Inventing and constructing
interfaces for animals and plants, allows illuminating and amplifying the
underlying beauty, and intertwined symbiosis existent in natural living
systems. Rinaldo is author of Interactive Electronics for Artists and Inventors,
and is a Professor of Art and Technology at The Ohio State University.
Anna Paltseva holds a Ph.D. in Earth & Environmental Sciences
at the CUNY Graduate Center and Research and Program Coordinator at the
NYC Urban Soils Institute. She focuses on the assessment of heavy metals
bioavailability in urban soils. Anna Paltseva is a lecturer at CUNY –
Brooklyn College, New York University, and the New York and Brooklyn Botanical
Gardens. Anna develops educational materials, leads soil workshops and coordinates
collaborations with international researchers for the NYC Urban Soils Institute.
Daniel
Lammel is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Biology (Ecology
of Plants), Free University Berlin. His areas of research is soil ecology
and mycorrizal symbiosis as well as Soil Fertility, Plant Nutrition, Agricultural
Science and Ecosystem Ecology. Originally from Brazil, he studied at the
university of São Paulo, before competing his Ph.D. at Univ. of Massachusetts
in Amherst.
Regine
Rapp is an art historian, curator and co-director of Art Laboratory
Berlin. Her current research interests include Installation art, artist
books, hybrid art, art & science collaborations. She researches, curates
and publishes on 21st century art at the interface of science and technology.
She has taught art history at the Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle
and is currently a researcher at the TU Berlin Institute of Biotechnolgy,
Dept. for Applied and Molecular Microbiology.
Christian
de Lutz is a curator, co-founder and co-director of Art Laboratory Berlin,
where he has curated over 40 exhibitions, including the series Time and
Technology, Synaesthesia, [macro]biologies & [micro]biologies, and Nonhuman
Subjectivities. His curatorial work focuses on the interface of art, science
and technology in the 21st century, with special attention given to BioArt,
DIY Science initiatives and facilitating collaborations between artists
and scientists.
Today
Material Research is a central point in the theory and practice
of designing new technologies, in cooperation with art and design.
These fields are currently collaborating, merging their knowledge
and practice to develop a new generation of materials, by focusing
on specific characteristics, to create new environmentally friendly
materials. Another approach, however, has also arisen in the last
years combining making, crafting and personal fabrication of new
materials through a form of Do It Yourself (DIY) biology and craftmaking.
This Mind the Fungi workshop discusses this new material
driven design movement and methodology, learning how to build a
new material by studying and using a living organism like mycelium.
Discovering the features, possibilities and limits of mycelium-based
materials, the participants will work together growing material
and developing new material, building sculptures, assembling DIY
packaging and drawing and cutting patterns on a new material made
of biofilm.
Photos from our first Mind the Fungi exhibition at the Futurium, which just ended. The second exhibition, featuring the works of Theresa Schubert and Fara Peluso, from their artist-in-residency a the TU Berlin , Institute of Biotechnology, will open during the Summer
Photos by Tim Deussen
Mind the Fungi is a collaboration between the TU Berlin Institute
for Biotechnology and Art Laboratory Berlin, combining scientific
research, citizen science and artist and designer residencies-in-lab.
The project researches innovative uses for biomaterials produced
from tree fungi. Researchers at TU Berlin create new materials from
natural sources. How and what you grow the materials on defines
its qualities. For this topic Art Laboratory Berlin brings together
artists, designers, scientists and the public to share knowledge
and experience new forms of creativity through exhibitions, talks
and workshops.
The exhibition shows how we have cultivated various tree fungi with
different media (i.e. on substrate such as sawdust), and produced
biomaterials with different shapes, structures and qualities. Some
current examples range from mycelium bricks to 'vegan leather' and
other design products. Videos and slide shows document the Art Science
project "Mind the Fungi", introduce the individual team
members and provide a deeper insight into the creative world of
an interdisciplinary work process.Regine Rapp & Christian de
Lutz (curators)
What
we consider to be our environment unequivocally and ubiquitously
contains plastic. It has been found at the outskirts of human reach:
at the top of Mount Everest, in Arctic ice, and at the bottom of
the Mariana trench. Plastic is becoming part of our geology and
the lively surrounding of many organisms on this planet – a
new material and habitat providing new stories and life forms.
The overabundance of this human-made material challenges our concepts
of the natural and former sites of waste and refuse might
have gotten a new fertile potential: Trees grow on plastic dumps,
bacteria and fungi evolve to feed on PET. Plastic might be disrupting
our idea of nature but is it really disrupting nature itself? While
plastic can be detrimental to the quality of an ecosystem, plastic
pollution is also a carbon sink, storing carbon and keeping carbon
dioxide and methane out of the atmosphere. But is this carbon sink,
itself an embodiment of industrial processes that contribute to
the climate crisis, in competition or complementarity to forests?
Using DIY science and artistic research, Kat Austen has been working
on a new project Stranger to the Trees* exploring the coexistence
of microplastics with birch trees.
In
soil, microorganisms are involved in degradation processes of both
natural and synthesized material. In order to build a first understanding
of the plastisphere as a living micro-habitat, Nana MacLean started
characterizing the microbial community on plastic debris in soil
and landfills she has visited during her Phd research. With molecular
data in her hands, she’s questioning if bacterial life isn’t
already “owning” the plastisphere as a new nature.
In
the DIY Hack the Panke programme's (Un)Real Ecologies
workshops by Nana MacLean and Kat Austen, participants work together
to research the coexistence of microplastics with the Panke River
in Berlin Wedding. The Sushi Roulette workshop series uses
DIY chemistry to search for microplastics in fish guts. Coexistence
of plastic with non-artificial entities in the environment, and
with humans, is a burgeoning area of research, which has been explored
through participatory interdisciplinary techniques and should be
discussed from many different angles.
This
Earth Day, join Kat Austen and Nana MacLean to discuss the coexistence
of microplastics in the environment and what it means for nature
and ourselves. During this online talk, we will invite your minds
with us to go visiting the plastisphere as artists, chemists and
biologists, trees and bacteria, humans and particles – negotiating
together a plan of coexistence with microplastics on this planet.
Art Laboratory Berlin e.V., a non-profit organisation, was founded in Autumn 2006. As a noncommercial art space, Art Laboratory Berlin was established as a platform for projects
concentrating on the border between visual arts and related artistic and scholarly fields.
For more info. go to
http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org
All photos copyright Art Laboratory Berlin e.V. unless otherwise noted. For permissions email: info@artlaboratory-berlin.org
