OTHERWISE — Polymorphic Futures is a hybrid festival dedicated to the potential of artistic research to contribute to societal and ecological transformations. Over 8 months and in 4 on- and offline symposia, artists, designers and researchers will explore and share in various formats their own practices and urgent questions. The presentations are showcasing work-in-progress and invite the audience to actively engage in the development process. OTHERWISE is based on the premise that challenging times require new modes of thinking and doing, collaboratively.
In the second online symposium we will look at the theme transformation. If a crisis results in trauma, what kind of trauma does the environmental crisis create? And is there a cure? How can we think of transformation without falling back it neoliberal parols that promote every “failure” as an opportunity for growth? Ultimately, how can the performing arts support us in navigating the complex challenge the environmental crises poses?
Wed 28.07. | 19-22h
Interactive game with Grace Turtle Polifroni, Becoming Collective
Control Wars
We will explore and play with Control Wars, a game, and at the laboratory, offering a platform to its participants to examine and transcend systemic inertias engendering the present surface potentials for alternative realities from the imaginaries of emerging philosophical and theoretical discourse and worldviews. Participants will experiment with character development, auto-fiction, and world-building in this session, invoking relational and subjective transformations.
Thr 29.07. | 19-21h
work-in-progress presentations with OTHERWISE fellows
The Future of the Earth: Pre-enacting Climate Scenarios - Patrick Gusset
Patrick tries to make climate futures available through the process of pre-enactment. Performed scenarios consist exclusively of scientific studies, their data, tables, diagrams and texts. Through pre-enactment, these scenarios come into use, which couples the reception of knowledge to a concrete spatial, temporal and sensual experience. The performative scenario thus evokes experiences that move beyond text-based or visual scenarios.
Masquerade - Bernadette Köbele
Bernadette will take you along the path of her colonial family story in Indonesia in the beginning of the 20th century and towards her interest in the postcolonial field: the masquerade of colonial society. The masquerade is a social technique which comes into use in contemporary white- and greenwashing narratives and practices of well-known multinationals and scientific researchers.
Fri 30.07. | 19h
Wallmapu ex situ: Presentation by Trop Cher to share
Aldir Polymeris, Nina Willimann and Jose Cáceres Mardones will present their long-term project "Wallmapu ex situ" which deals with the history of Wallmapu in southern Chile. In the context of a speculative role play, experts from Chile and Switzerland take the perspective of non-human beings, who have become witnesses, observers, affected or profiteers of the transformation of this region from an indigenous territory to a landscape reshaped by agribusiness and plantation economy.
Fri 30.07. | 19:45h
Traumatic Landscapes: Podium & Open Discussion
Although the climate crisis is a global phenomenon, its impacts are asymmetrically distributed. Global injustices are becoming increasingly apparent as a result of this process. Against centuries of violence and resource exploitation in the name of progress, who has the right to grieve? In this panel, we will discuss the uneven relationship between climate change and colonial histories. What traumas lie buried in landscapes around the world? How can they be uncovered and reclaimed? What evidence do they bear? And how do we orient ourselves in slowly vanishing worlds?
OTHERWISE fellows, Trop Cher to share, and Psychologists 4 Future, an initiative that provides psychological support for climate activists, come together to discuss the notion of climate trauma.
Link to all events will be share on the day via otherwise.network
more infos: otherwise.network Insta: @otherwise.network
19:00
21:00
