TRANSSPECIES – AN ASSEMBLY ACROSS SPECIES LINES
Dome of Visions, 6-8 November 2015
Naja Ankerfeldt (DK) / Lisbeth Bank (DK) / Honey Biba Beckerlee (DK) / Laura Beloff (FN) /
Adam Bencard (DK) / Karin Bolender (US) / Beatriz da Costa (BR) / Elisabeth Friis (DK) /
FUGT (DK) / Fran Gallardo (SP/UK) / Tue Greenfort (DK) / Donna Haraway & Paper Tiger Television (US) / Johannes Heldén (SE) / Kathy High (US) / Marie Højlund & Morten Riis (DK) / Natalie Jeremijenko (AU/US) / Eduardo Kac (BR/US) / Rosemary Lee (US) /
Ny Jord - tidsskrift for naturkritik (DK) / Anna Maria Orru (SE/IT) / Angela Rawlings (CAN/IS) / Asbjørn Skou (DK) / Morten Søndergaard (DK)
What worlds are (de)composed in transspecies encounters? What stories stem from the intricate knottings between companions originating from different gene pools? And what are the ethical, philosophical and linguistic consequences of uncountable interspecies enmeshments of economic, biological, semiotic, and - not least - emotional character?
The assembly TRANSSPECIES is teeming with bastards, hybrids and swarms of interspecies connections.
TRANSSPECIES investigates the current involvements of the contemporary art scene in environmental issues, climate crises and multispecies assemblies emphasizing the importance of re-negotiating transspecies ethics, while negotiating new strategies for planetary care and recuperation across species lines. This calls for bold commitments and serious ventures into non-anthropocentric world views and perspectives that do not presuppose the binary oppositions between humans and organic others so fundamental to Western thinking.
The assembly presents new productions, as well as already existing works in a variety of installation, sculpture, video and performance. The works investigates the various ways we – humans, animals, bacteria and plants – keep each other company. Artists instigate aesthetic experiments in collaboration with other species, hereby putting transhuman bodies, identities and voices at stake in muddy contact zones. TRANSSPECIES explores the potentials of artistic practices in articulating new stories about ‘us’ and ‘them’, and experimenting with collaborations that transgress the ontological isolation of anthropocentrism.
In addition to the exhibited works, TRANSSPECIES will offer performances, readings, a workshop, talks and open-table discussions transforming Dome of Visions to a public, experimental assembly for the junctions and cross-breedings between human and non-human; between art and science.
Download pdf to read about the art works (in English and Danish) →
Download exhibition flyer with live program (in English and Danish) →
TRANSSPECIES takes place 6-8 November, 2015, in Dome of Visions, Copenhagen
(next to the Royal Library 'The Diamond' at Slotsholmen).
Free entrance for the entire duration of the festival.
TRANSSPECIES is generously supported by Beckett-Fonden, Fonden for Ånd, Vækst og Bevidsthed, The Swedish Arts Council, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and The Danish Arts Council.
TRANSSPECIES is curated by Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology (Dea Antonsen & Ida Bencke).
