Vital Currencies

Start: May 26, 2023 06:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
End: May 27, 2023 08:00 PM
Location: Akademie Schloss Solitude
Room: Solitude 3, 70197, Stuttgart
Host: Hemal Naik
Contact: hnaik@ab.mpg.de

Join the Department of Ecology of Animal Societies (EAS) for an exhibition at Schloss Solitude. The exhibition “Vital Currencies” will feature works by EAS scientist Hemal Naik and artist Helene Sommer, which was made as part of a transdisciplinary residency program between Akademie Schloss Solitude and EAS.

The event will be in English. Admission is free. Visit Schloss Solitude for the full program

Vital Currencies

Currencies are cultural technologies which allow for complex social behavior to emerge. They describe a form of exchange of values, that as an abstract unit of measurement, determines and directs the way we live together. Yet in encounters with other species, we might realize that our currencies have no value in the language of our environment. While carrying symbolic value these intermediaries of social relations follow reductionist notions of value, thus failing to sustain fertile connections with what is vital to our collective wellbeing. "Vital Currencies" centers on recalibrating our value systems, departing from practices of ecosocial renewal and multispecies encounter. Together we want to develop ecologically sensitive modes of conviviality and direct our attention to what kind of values can emerge through attentive interactions with our environment. Which stories do we need to tell in order to produce a shared sense of belonging between landscapes, humans and animals? How can we establish relationships of mutual giving and receiving in thriving multispecies environments?

Program

Friday, May 26, 2023

18:00 - Welcome & Introduction

18.30 - to foretell a Being’s cast, Luana Lojić

19.00 - Value: a minor politics, Maan Barua

20:00 - Surprise screening

20:30 - Wine tasting, OFF GRID

Saturday, 27 May, 2023

11.00 - Workshop, INLAND

13:00 - Microorganic Tastings, Bio Design Lab

14:00 - Animals that are missing, Neda Kovinic

17:00 - Spending Time (with Taxidermy), Sara Bédard-Goulet

18:00 - Encounters with the wild, Hemal Naik

18:30 - Effigy of the Beast, Helene Sommer

19:30 - Animals that Are Missing (II) Neda Kovinic

20:00 - Fernando García-Dory and Mi You in conversation