Symposion Art & Ecology IV: If the world were your Oyster

“they say the world is your oyster when they mean the world is your pearl to find, but really: the world is just oysters“

Your Oysters – Rasha Abdulhadi Shell Houses (2017, The Head & The Hand Press)

A multifaceted program awaits us, featuring local and international artists who focus ob ecofeminist, decolonial, and Indigenous practices. Curated by cultural studies scholar Mekhala Dave, we will learn more about our connection to nature, the ocean, and different species through talks and readings, sound and video installations, and numerous sculptural exhibition objects.

Oysters are dazzlingly mysterious, a delicacy for the palate and a microcosm into a world that mirrors our own. As saltwater bivalve molluscs, they transform pain within their soft bodies into luminous pearls over time. This journey offers a fluid moment to “think-with” the world around us: how might we feel our way through the conditions of our time? Inspired by queer Palestinian poet Rasha Abdulhadi’s Your Oysters, we invite you to a program that brings together artists in residency joined by scientists, scholars and thinkers. Set amidst legacies and dialogues of art within the biodiversity of Symposium Lindabrunn, this gathering activates art through a multispecies perspective. Embracing decolonial and feminist methods, we immerse ourselves in the natural world and engage with digital tools, echoing indigenous genealogies to open portals between worlds. Join us at Symposium Lindabrunn for a soft landing of learning, togetherness and shared reflections.

Curated by Mekhala Dave
Supported by Valentina Gruber