Oxana Timofeeva with Joris Janssens: Solidarity on the Planetary Scale — RESHAPE Intensive Cluj
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2019-11-13

Oxana Timofeeva in conversation with Joris Janssens: Solidarity on the Planetary Scale

Tuesday 12 November 2019
17:00 EET (Cluj, UTC +2) / 16:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1) / 15:00 GMT (London, UTC +0) / 10 a.m. EST (New York, UTC -5)

A critical engagement of theory and arts in a dialogue with natural and technical sciences is characteristic for the materialist turn in contemporary culture. It rethinks historical processes from the perspective of the posthuman turn: the history of humans has to be inscribed into the history of things and the history of the World – into the history of the Earth. Nonhuman forms of living and nonliving matter are included into the historical process, which has to be conceived not as a succession of stages of development of human societies, but as geological eras, whose definition is now a subject of debate. This brings us to a new understanding of politics. It must be not only international, but interspecies, including all subjects and matters – animals, plants, mountains, people, sounds, viruses, AI, etc. These cultural shifts transform traditional modes of the political – republic, democracy, socialism, communism, etc. Oxana Timofeeva will discuss a few concepts that can accompany this transformation, as well as the crucial role of contemporary art in reinventing these concepts.

Oxana Timofeeva is a Professor at the Department of Sociology and Philosophy at the European University in St. Petersburg, member of the artistic collective "Chto Delat?" ("What is to be done?"), a deputy editor of the journal "Stasis", and the author of books History of Animals (Maastricht: Jan van Eyck, 2012; Moscow, 2017; London: Bloomsbury, 2018), and Introduction to the “Erotic Philosophy” of Georges Bataille (Moscow: New Literary Observer, 2009).

RESHAPE presented the Intensive Cluj meeting livestreaming from Cluj, Romania on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Tuesday 12 November and Thursday 14 November 2019.

Intensive Cluj is a meeting of art practitioners interested in creating alternative organizational models for the arts.

It takes place in the framework of RESHAPE, a research and development project that brings together artists and art workers from Europe and the South Mediterranean to jointly imagine how arts will be created, accessed and experienced in the future. RESHAPE relies on the collective intelligence and creativity of the cultural workers on the ground. A bottom-up process, it gathers artists and activists who already have experience and expertise in imagining alternative practices and transforming them into concrete actions and policy recommendations.

Intensive Cluj is the first occasion when art workers who, until now, have been working in smaller groups and specific topics, come together to cross and share their findings, reflections, ideas and inspirations. It will provide a first glimpse of where this research might lead us to.

Moreover, Intensive Cluj connects the RESHAPE research to the Romanian artist and activist initiatives, sparkling new conversations and ideas.

Intensive Cluj is also an opportunity to infuse the reflection on alternative models in the arts sector with ideas and practices from broader societal debates, movements and tendencies.

Finally, Intensive Cluj is an open invitation for sharing and reflecting: how can we make sure that future artistic practices are better adjusted to the values of the sector and the evolution of society? There are no ready-made solutions and the future is ours to imagine!