Photo Credits: Sabrina Bühn and Franzi Kreis/im_flieger
Yesterday I was invited to discuss the mediatization of the climate catastrophe with filmmaker Zara Zandieh at Deutschlandfunk Kultur's "Lakonisch, Elegant". We discussed what the (potentially heteronormative & reactionary) impact of Hollywood-like images of catastrophe might be and how an ethics of inter-relational, postcolonial and queer story-telling needs to be developed to devise an engaging discussion of the ongoing climate catastrophe.
*Disclaimer: in the heat of discussion (and the actual hot weather) I claimed that China rudimentarily also developed a concept of "Nature" similar to that of European modernity. This, however, was a mistake, at least judging from the interpretation of Francois Jullien on that matter. I apologize!
Next week I am honored to be able to performatively research and work with David Kummer on a topic I have so far mainly touched in theoretical (as in my Backlash-book) and interventionist / activist manners: that of the transformation of our public space as the "smallest unit" of our anthropogenic environmental entanglement.
We are entangled with the spaces around us. We are the public, we have our spaces.
The public space enables us and limits us - it makes us what we are.
But, in times of ecological turmoil, are our spaces changing fast enough with us? Do they adapt (us) well to the new chaotic climates of the Earth? Or do they make us stuck in the values and practices of an old, fossil fueled and consumerist way of life?
Space is inert. We tend to become inert with it.
How can we engage it to change - with - us - and the world ?
Through a spectrum of shared bodily practices in public space, we seek to enable new modes of action and perception, which should lead to a self-empowerment of the participants and an invitation to dialogue and engagement with pedestrians. Together, old patterns of movement in public space will be questioned and a new playful and at the same time critical physicality will be explored. The developed and guided scores shall give the possibility to inscribe oneself deeply into the public space in a different way and to practice and experience a choreographic perception. The space, being transformed into a versatile adventure playground (for big and small), is meant to open utopian windows of possibility for a different "fusion" with our human-made, urban environment and the questioning of its norms.
After our week-long research we will do a public presentation on Friday the 16th of July 2021 at 17h at Im_Flieger, Bräuhausgasse 40, 1050 Vienna. More information (in German and English) here.
