In recent years, there have been ongoing discussions about moving beyond anthropocentrism to find more pertinent ways to interact with the more-than-human world. Despite our best endeavors, our human
perspective and language-based communication have limitations. At the same time, these obstacles invite us to embrace other forms of relating to the more-than-human.
This two-day colloquium focuses on works of art, literature, and film that are believed to make embodied, speculative, and imaginative attempts at communicating beyond the human. In collective close reading/viewing/listening sessions, the colloquium will explore and reflect on ways of narrating, mediating, representing, and translating encounters with the more-than-human. How are gestures, sounds, or sign-based “conversations” between different beings narrated and/or translated back into language? How do such
practices challenge or transform the artist/researcher’s habits? And could artistic methods serve as a guideline for more-than-human interaction? Exploring communication through gestures, sounds, and images, while unlikely to help us bridge the gap between humans and the more-than-humans, may enhance an
attentiveness and sensibility that expands human language, thinking, and empathy.
Monday, 3rd April
7–9 pm: Ji Yun Park, artist, Hong Kong and Zurich
(Welcome to) The Planet of Orchids
Screening with Q&A
Tuesday, 4th April
10.30 am – 1 pm: Feixuan Xu, anthropologist, London
and Hong Kong
‘Just Like Human Babies’: Becoming
an Amateur Carer of Silkworms
Ellie Kyungran Heo, artist,
London and Seoul
The Garden on Your Belly
1 pm Lunch break
2.30–5.30 pm: Marcel Bleuler, art researcher, Zurich
Unreliable Experience
Jessica Ullrich, art historian,
Munster and Berlin
Soliloquy as a Cephalopod: What is
it like to be an Octopus? (online)
Laura von Niederhäusern, artist, Zurich
Face No Face – Filmic means of
encountering non-human temporalities
5.30 pm Apéro
Wednesday, 5th April
10 am – 12 pm: Noemi Somalvico, novelist, Bern
Ist hier das Jenseits, fragt Schwein (in German)
Barbara Preisig, art historian, Zurich
Feeling like a critter. Lydia Clark’s
Relational Objects
12 pm Lunch Break
1.30 – 4 pm: Bo Zheng, artist, Hong Kong
Le Sacre du printemps 1 (online)
Rosie Benn, artist, Vienna
Limen
Organized by Barbara Preisig and Ji Yun Park, IFCAR Institute for Contemporary Art Research, Department of Fine Arts.
This is a public on-site event. For planning purposes, we kindly ask you to register by email by March 27th.