UPDATED SCHEDULE – FULL LIST OF SPEAKERS

EARN. Symposium “A Counter Order of Things.” Venice.

Symposium IUAV/Finnish Pavilion
October 25–26

Organized by Henk Slager, Jan Kaila and Terike Haapoja
Location: IUAV University of Venice,
Aula Tafuri, Palazzo Badoer, San Polo 2468
To request a place at the event please contact: henri.wegelius(at)kuva.fi

The symposium “A Counter Order of Things” departs from the current awareness that the Linnaeus tree of taxonomical knowledge is losing its signification. Once symbolizing a classifying reason and the supremacy of human kind against all other entities in Foucault’s The Order of Things, the tree of taxonomical knowledge is now being attacked and undermined to the depth of its metaphysical roots by the encroaching forces of speculative realism, ecosophical activism, object-oriented ontology, elementary politics, and post-humanism. All of these forces seem to be putting a halt to an anthropocentric perspective of instrumental restraint while demanding a different way of thinking related to an egalitarian being-in-the-world.

Through presentations by relevant keynote thinkers and artists, the symposium “A Counter Order of Things” investigates a variety of issues and questions that could lead to a topical and more dynamic profile of the concept of research and interaction between art, science, and activism connected to a being-in-the-world removed from the Linnaeus tree of taxonomical knowledge.

Programme

Friday, October 25

Eclipse of the Animal
10–10.15hr: Opening Raija Koli (Director of FRAME Visual Art Finland) and Jan Kaila (Head of Board FRAME and Professor of Artistic Research, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts)
10.15–11hr: Terike Haapoja (Participating artist of the Finnish Pavilion, Venice Biennale): “Pavilion of Species”
11–11.15hr: Break
11.15–12hr: Anselm Franke (Curator of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin): “Animism and Ontological Anarchy”
12–12.30hr: Discussion (Moderator: Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir, Professor of Fine Art at Valand Academy of Art, Gothenburg)

Action as Form
14.30–15.15hr: Gerald Raunig (Professor of Art and Media at Zurich University of the Arts): “The Molecular Revolution”
15.15–16hr: Frans Jacobi (Professor in Time-based Art/Performance at Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Norway): “Time Inside Active”
16–16.15hr: Break
16.15–17.15hr: Discussion “Reclaiming Animality” (Moderator: Angela Vettese, Director of the Graduate Program in Visual and Performing Arts at IUAV University of Venice)
17.15-18hr: Giulio Squillacciotti (Former Resident Bevilacqau La Masa, Venice): “The Seed Vault”

Saturday, October 26

Politics of Ecology
10.15–11hr: Tuula Närhinen (Doctoral Researcher at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts): “Imag(in)ing the Non-Human Condition”
11–11.15hr: Break
11.15–12hr: TJ Demos (Reader in Art History at University College London): “Climates of Displacement”
12–12.30hr: Discussion (Moderator: Henk Slager, Dean MaHKU Utrecht/Visiting Professor in Artistic Research at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts)

Material Practices
14.30–15.15hr: Ursula Biemann (Participating artist of the Maledives Pavilion, Venice Biennale): “Geochemistry and other Planetary Perspectives”
15.15–15.30hr: Break
15.30–16.15hr: Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan (Doctoral Researcher at MaHKU Utrecht/University of Amsterdam): “Drifting Studio Practice”
16.15–17:30hr: Discussion and closure (Moderator: Mick Wilson, Head of Department of Valand Academy, Gothenburg)

“A Counter Order of Things” is part of the Falling Trees program, the Finnish contribution to the 55th Venice Biennale. Departing from the narrative of the Aalto pavilion crushed by a falling tree, Falling Trees concentrates on the awareness of contingency and how nature presents itself separate from of a categorizing, anthropocentric consciousness.

The symposium “A Counter Order of Things” is co-organized by the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts/University of the Arts Helsinki in collaboration with FRAME (Visual Art Finland), IUAV University of Venice and EARN (European Artistic Research Network).