Burning Perspectives
Reading group III with the xtro realm group
14 May 2020, 5 - 6.30 pm (local time in Slovakia)
Sublime images of forest fires, captive tigers and the return of the dolphins to Venice’s canals have been circulating on the web and in our minds. Instead of exploiting the quick reactions from the aesthetics of such images, how can we nurture an ecology of images and art that can help move towards a systemic change and planetary health? The meta-narrative of apocalypse seems to be a recurring theme when contemplating the climate crisis as well as its current impacts shattering parts of the Earth and its human and non-human inhabitants. Humanity gets a thrill out of imagining its own end not just as persons but as a species. Is this a fantasy that helps to mobilize responsibility or does it act to the contrary, restraining our imagination from a possible change?
Reading list:
Demos, T.J.. The Agency of Fire: Burning Aesthetics, e-flux Journal #98. February 2019.
Buell, Frederick. A Short History of Environmental Apocalypse, In: Future Ethics - Climate Change and Apocalyptic Imagination. Ed. by Stefan Skrimshire. Continuum International Publishing Group. 2010.
P. 13-25.
Recommended: p 13-37, the whole chapter (accessible upon registration).
Cave, Damien: The End of Australia as We Know It. The New York Times. Feb. 15, 2020.
Rita Süveges is an artist living and working in Budapest. She is enrolled in the DLA program of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Her artistic practice is based on research creation focusing on the separation of nature and culture in the history of sciences and humanities. Her research applies ecocritical paradigms to investigate the role of nature's visual representations manifested in landscape. She took part in several local and regional group and solo exhibitions since 2008. She is a board member of SYAA (Studio of Young Artists' Association) and xtro realm artist group.
Gideon Horváth is a Budapest-based artist, working with ecological themes in photos, films and installations. He studied at the Intermedia faculty of Hungarian University of Fine Arts and at the Cinéma faculty of Université Paris VIII. His work often deals with apocalyptic perspectives and a post-anthropocentric point of view both in solo and group settings. He is also a board member of SYAA (Studio of Young Artists’ Association), and xtro realm artist group.
Since 2017 the xtro realm group organizes a multitude of programs (reading circles, exhibitions, field trips) dealing with new-realist and ecological theories that critique the anthropocentrism of contemporary thinking, in order to provide access to the discourses of climate change and the Anthropocene, all in the spirit of knowledge-sharing and transdisciplinarity.
Event will be held in English. Please register until May 13 here.
We´ll get back to you with the further info, remaining readings and the video conferencing link. The number of participants is limited to 20.
Reading group is part of Ecologies of the Ghost Landscape, the Word for World is Forest curated by Borbála Soós.
ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit. Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.
