Liberating land from ecocide: “An Island and One Night” - Talk & Screening @ Social Innovation Center, Ottawa, 1st of Oct 24

As part of my tour through North America I will give a talk about ZADism and screen the film "Une Ile et une nuit" at the Social Innovation Center in Ottawa on the 1st of October. Find more info and links below. Thanks to the Punch Up Collective for the invitation!

 “ZAD,” or “zone à defender,” has entered the European lexicon as a general term for militant direct collective action against large-scale development projects. First coming into prominence in the collective opposition airport construction in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, (still the largest self-organized autonomous zone in Europe) the approach and tactic has spread widely. To be a “zadiste” is defined in the Le Petit Robert dictionary as “a militant occupying a ZAD to oppose a proposed development that would damage the environment.” In the Canadian context, we know relatively little about these concrete fights or the conceptual formation of this idea. Come hear from a visiting European radical who has spent time on many ZADs over the last years and will share insights and an autonomously created film illuminating this tendency.

What does life feel like in zones liberated from ecocidal capitalism? Will its residents – moved together by war and climate change – develop a kind of relation with the land they live on that simply abandons the bureaucratic methods of the last “green capitalists”? Residents of the Quartier Libre des Lentillières in Dijon, one of the most famous occupied zones in France, have produced an auto-fictional cinematic firework in a self-managed and collective manner, which makes the desire for radical-ecological change sensually comprehensible. It gives a magnificent insight into current radical French activist scenes around the strategy of the ZAD and can serve as a generous starting point for a trans-Atlantic discussion on how liberatory strategies of reclaiming territory can look and feel like in a world tainted by settler-colonialism, fascism and other toxic forms of exclusion.

The film An Island and One Night (“Une Ile et une nuit”) has screened widely in the European context, but is normally only shown when one of the activists from Lentillieres is with it. Activist/artist Kilian Jörg will be visiting North America for two months in the Fall of 2024, and was invited by the group who made the film to share it with us. Ottawa is one of the very few screening sites in North America!

https://www.punchupcollective.org/reo-calendar/liberating-land-from-ecocide-an-island-and-one-night-une-ile-et-une-nuit/

https://www.facebook.com/events/902794978333482/

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Addition: 

I will roughly give the same talk & screening already on the 27th in Kingston, Ontario. Find more info here.

"An Ecology of Moralizing" - Talk at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada - 26/09/24

The main reason I am in North-America is - thanks to the kind funding of Carleton University and the Futurama.Lab - to research on Alexis Shotwell's and current research project "An Ecology of Moralizing". We are really excited - and sometimes nervous - about it and will be sharing our thoughts on this at various places in North-America in the next weeks. The first public one is on the 26th of September at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.  Find more info below and if you are around, we are very curious to hear your critical remarks and thoughts - both of us wouldn't have believed a year ago that we would once work on a positive concept of moralizing...but we really think we discovered a blind-spot in our thinking that is revealing and productive to current ethico-political problems of discourse.

--> link to the lecture

"Une Ile et une nuit"-screening and talk about "ZAD Partout" @ L'Achoppe, Montreal 21.9

I am very honored that the collective of the Pirates de Lentillières has entrusted me with becoming some kind of ambassador of their unique film "Une Ile et une nuit" in North-America (usually they only show it with their personal presence). I will be showing the film - accompanied by a little input on the political pholosophy of "ZAD Partout" and it's political background in France - in Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston (and perhaps Chicago - tbc). I have written before how incredibly important I find this film. For me it is the best document I know that can transpose the somatic joy of rebellion and reclaiming territory behind ZADism that gives me so much political hope and horizon in these otherwise dark times. 

The Montreal-screening will be held at the Centre Social l'Achoppe and you can find more info about them on the Facebook page and post about the event. 

What does life feel like in zones liberated from ecocidal capitalism? Will its residents - moved together by war and climate change - develop a kind of relation with the land they live on that simply abandons the bureaucratic methods of the last "green capitalists"? Residents of the Quartier Libre des Lentillières in Dijon, one of the most famous occupied zones in France, have produced an auto-fictional cinematic firework in a self-managed and collective manner, which makes the desire for radical-ecological change sensually comprehensible. It gives a magnificent insight into current radical French activist scenes around the strategy of the ZAD and can serve as a generous starting point for a trans-Atlantic discussion on how liberatory strategies of reclaiming territory can look and feel like in a world tainted by settler-colonialism, fascism and other toxic forms of exclusion.

About the film: An Island and One Night (“Une Ile et une nuit”) is a fictional film made collectively over the past two years by the residents and users of the Quartier Libre des Lentillères, a self-organized area on the last remaining market garden land in the city of Dijon. These 8 hectares have been occupied and recultivated since 2010, in resistance to a concrete "ecocity" project that still threatens them today. In the middle of the city, these fallow spaces and abandoned houses have been transformed into a self-managed, multi-purpose district, where collective housing, market gardening, self-construction, festive and cultural events, etc. intermingle. It's a place of struggle and solidarity of all kinds, as well as a veritable reserve of biodiversity.
https://www.piratesdeslentilleres.net/en

"The Car as Everyday Catastrophe" - 19.9 @ Concordia University, Montreal

For the first time in a long time I hoped a plane (see here for some intimate thoughts on that) and am now on the North-American continent for the next two months. I will give plenty of talks, presentations and screenings at various places. The first of which are in Montreal - where I will give a talk titled "The Car as Everyday Catastrophe" on the 19th of September at the CISSC of Concordia University:

--> Find all the info here <--

The Car and the Ecological Catastrophe - talk at Active Travel Academy online

My talk of last months at the Active Travel Academy at the University of Westminster has now been uploaded online. It is certainly the best content as of now for English-speakers to get to know about my soon to be published book "Das Auto und die ökologische Katastrophe". In the talk, I present some of the main theses of my book, including the car as a machine that turns "Nature" into a consumer product, the role of fascism in the establishment of the European system of Automobility and a more nuanced analysis of Electric cars. I am already negotiating with a great publisher about an English translation of the book - but until then, please start with enjoying the talk :)

 

Active Travel Academy external seminar – The Car and the Ecological Catastrophe-20240529_160010-Meeting Recording (1) from Active Travel Academy on Vimeo.

 

Nachhaltigkeit versus Kooperation - Hearings zum Rat der Wiener Festwochen, 18.6 18h

Ich wurde sehr spontan als Expert*in zum Thema "Nachhaltigkeit versus Kooperation" zum Hearing der Wiener Festwochen eingeladen - Thema: "Ökologischer Fußabdruck vs. politischer Handabdruck" - heute ab 18h im Volkskunde Museum bei gratis Eintritt.

Hier die Info und die Links:

Für eineinhalb Monate verwandelt sich Wien jedes Frühjahr in die Hauptstadt des Welttheaters. Welche Parameter der Nachhaltigkeit muss sich eine Institution, die derart entschieden global agiert, auferlegen? Ist es vertretbar, eine brasilianische oder südafrikanische Produktion einzuladen? Macht es nicht eher Sinn, lokal zu produzieren? Oder geht eine konsequente Nachhaltigkeitspolitik nicht letztlich zu Lasten des Globalen Südens – also jener, die ohnehin keine Produktionsmittel haben?
Dienstag und Mittwoch sind Anhörungstage. In einer Reihe von Hearings entwickeln wir gemeinsam die Regeln für das Festival der Zukunft. Wer trifft die Entscheidungen? Woher kommen und wohin gehen die Projektgelder? Wer wird eingeladen, wer nicht – und warum? Wer ist Produzent, wer Publikum? Boykotte – ja oder nein? Und wie geht ein global agierendes Festival mit Nachhaltigkeit zusammen? Expert:innen, Künstler:innen und Aktivist:innen geben Einblick in ihre Praxis und prüfen mögliche Alternativen. Der Rat der Republik verfolgt und diskutiert die Hearings und entwirft über fünf Wochen hinweg eine eigene Verfassung, die als Wiener Erklärung am Ende des Festivals der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert wird.

Dienstag 18. Juni: Ökologischer Fußabdruck vs. politischer Handabdruck
Mittwoch 19. Juni: Klimagerechtigkeit und nachhaltige Produktionsstrukturen
Ausschussleitung: Jerry Catal, Lucia Steinwender

Expert:innen Florian Wagner, Julian Schütter, Melinda Weidenmüller, Verena Ehold, Killian Jörg, Roishetta Ozane, Mira Kapfinger, Claudia Isep, Mona Rieken, Wiebke Leithner, ZAD

--> https://www.festwochen.at/hearings-woche-5-nachhaltigkeit-versus-kooperation  

Learning from the ZAD - Theory Program at Klima Biennale Wien

This June I will curate a little theory and discourse program with the Futurama.Lab at the Klima Biennale Vienna. The program will be focused on the ZAD - the largest occupied zone in Europe, situated in North-Western France - and its potential for radical & much needed cultural, social and ecological transformation. We will host the premiere in the German speaking area of one of the most beautiful and poetic films I know about the matter and Michael Hirsch and me will present our upcoming book about the ZAD.

There will be two events, both taking place in the main hall at the Nord-Westbahn-Gelände of the Klima Biennale (map):

9. Juni 2024, 18h: Filmvorführung (OmU.) mit anschließender Diskussion mancher Filmproduzent*innen

Une île et une nuit 

Photo: Pirates des Lentillières

Wie fühlt sich das Leben in vom ökozidalen Kapitalismus befreiten Zonen an? Werden die Bewohner*innen, die – von Krieg und Klimawandel bewegt – hier zusammengekommen sind, eine Art „neo-indigenes“ Selbstverständnis entwickeln, welches die bürokratischen Methoden der letzten „grünen Kapitalisten“ einfach nicht mehr verstehen kann? Bewohner*innen des Quartier Libre des Lentillières in Dijon, eine der bekanntesten besetzten Zonen Frankreichs, haben in selbstverwalteter und kollektiver Weise ein auto-fiktionales filmisches Feuerwerk produziert, welches die Lust am radikal-ökologischen Wandel sinnlich nachvollziehbar macht. Premiere im deutschsprachigen Raum!

→ mehr Info zum Film

--> Programm auf der Klima Biennale

 

23. Juni 2024, 18h Vortrag mit anschließender Diskussion

„Die Verbindungen, die befreien“

„ZAD partout als politisches Programm?“. Über radikalen Aktivismus und radikalen Reformismus in der Gegenwart?

Photo: La Dèroute de Routes

Was wäre, wenn radikal-ökologische Besetzungen wie die ZAD nicht staatlich bekämpft, sondern gefördert werden? Es wäre ja im Eigeninteresse ihres Überlebens – denn wenn sich unsere hochkomplexe Gesellschaft nicht als Ganzes genügend schnell ändern lässt, muss die bitter notwendige Transformation von solch kleinen Mikro-Utopien ausgehen. Michael Hirsch und Kilian Jörg stellen ein gemeinsames Buchprojekt vor, welches jenseits der herrschenden bipolaren Neigung zwischen Techno-Optimismus und Katastrophismus eine neue utopische Strahlkraft aus der ZAD zu entwickeln versucht.

--> Programm auf der Klima Biennale

Das Futurama.Lab wird unterstützt von:
 
BMKOES Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport
Vienna . Austria; WIEN KULTUR . MA7 Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien, Vienna . Austria;  YPSOMED AG Burgdorf . Switzerland