Central European University Budapest
B Auditorium, Nádor utca 15
5-6 May 2017
Keynote speaker: Michael Marder
Author of Plant Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life
Rather than mere passive bystanders to history, plants act as agents, mediating relations both among people and between people and their environments, knowledge, markets, and politics, as well as serving as go betweens in non-human spheres. This conference explores the response of artists, writers and theorists to manifestations of plant agency considered through vegetal non-cognitive thought and non-representational memory, plant ethics and rights, and the relationship of humans and plants in the Anthropocene. It asks whether, moving beyond an anthropocentric concern with the instrumental value of plants, the vegetal world might offer models for coexistence and planetary being with relevance for human society, politics and economics. Considering also the knowledge of indigenous and ancient traditions about plants as co-members of the natural world, the conference highlights a range of intellectual and sensorial encounters with vegetation, focussing especially on the engagements of contemporary art with plant agency.
Speakers include: Monika Bakke (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Isabel Hoving (Leiden University), Khadija von Zinnenberg Carroll (University of Birmingham), Patrícia Vieira (Georgetown University, USA), Uriel Orlow (artist, London), Bo Zheng (artist, Hong Kong), Špela Petrič (artist, Ljubljana), Chonja Lee (University of Bern), Åsa Sonjasdotter (artist, Berlin), Christiane Erharter (curator, Vienna), Christine Mackey (artist, Ireland), Lea Vene (curator, Zagreb) and Sendy Osmičević (environmental scientist, Zagreb), Adéla Kremplová (Czech Academy of Sciences), Tatiana Safonova (Central European University), Ágnes Bakk and Bence György Pálinkás (artists, Budapest), Stefan Voicu (Central European University), Elizabeth Loudon (Central European University) and Alan Watt (Central European University).
This conference is organised by the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative (EAH) at Central European University in collaboration with Translocal Institute. The Environmental arts and Humanities Initiative aims to create a common platform for academic researchers, artists, and ecological activists creatively negotiating planetary issues at the intersection between scientific and humanities-based approaches to the environment. The conference committee is made up of EAH members Maja Fowkes, Reuben Fowkes, Alan Watt, Guntra Aistara and Hyaesin Yoon.
Program:
2017. május 5 (péntek)
14.30 Registration
15.00 Introduction:
Maja and Reuben Fowkes (Translocal Institute / EAH)
15.15 Panel 1
Monika Bakke (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
The Geologic Life of Plants
Åsa Sonjasdotter (artist, Berlin)
A Muddy Place for Art
Špela Petrič (artist, Ljubljana)
Vegetal Otherness, Intimately
16.30 Coffee break
16.50 Panel 2
Alan Watt (Central European University)
Dangerous roots: exploring autochthony’s problematic environmental appeal
Ágnes Bakk, Bence György Pálinkás (artists, Budapest)
Invasive Alien?
Christine Mackey (artist, Ireland)
Seed Matter
18.05 Film Screening
The Crown Against Mafavuke & Muthi, by Uriel Orlow (2016 SA/UK)
18.35 Wine reception
2017. május 6 (szombat)
9.00 Registration
9.30 Panel 3
Khadija von Zinnenberg Carroll (University of Birmingham)
Botanical Drift: Economic Botany and its plant protagonists
Adéla Kremplová (Czech Academy of Sciences)
Nature Lost in Translation: Nature Construction in Leisure Venues
Chonja Lee (University of Bern)
Ballets botaniques: How early film makes the plant soul visible in France
Uriel Orlow (artist, London)
Theatrum Botanicum
11.20 Coffee break
11.40 Panel 4
Isabel Hoving (Leiden University)
The Queerness of Nature in Caribbean Writing: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Desire Through Plants
Christiane Erharter (curator, Vienna)
Wilderness creates Diversity: Discussing the plants of Kaucyila Brooke (USA) and Lois Weinberger (A)
Patrícia Vieira (Georgetown University, USA)
Phytographia: Writing with Plants
13.00 Lunch break
13.45 Book Salon
Presentation of a selection of recent publications by conference speakers. Organised by Erik Hansen (Central European University)
14.15 Panel 5
Bo Zheng (artist, Hong Kong)
Weed Party: Plants and Politics in China
Stefan Voicu (Central European University)
Fungal (Dis)Connections. Ergot, Wheat and Global Commodity Trade
Lea Vene (curator, Zagreb) and Sendy Osmičević (environmental scientist, Zagreb)
Seed for the Future
Tatiana Safonova (Central European University)
Annuals as Perfect Commodities: Plants and People in a Small Flower Nursery in Hungary
16.00 CEU Roof Garden Tour led by:
Elizabeth Loudon (Central European University)
16.30 Keynote lecture:
Michael Marder (Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Spain, and Professor-at-Large at the Humanities Institute of Diego Portales University, Chile)
Let’s not hurry to leave the middle: Lingering with plants
17.20 Roundtable discussion
17.50 Finish
