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.
Programme
Saturday 11 July
12:00–12:30 Welcome and Opening Reflection Mekhala Dave with excerpts from Rasha Abdulhadi’s Shell Houses
12:30–13:00 Curatorial Tour of Exhibition
Mekhala Dave
13:00–14:00 Break
14:00–15:00 Film Screening: ‘How does one Get to Own a Mountain?!’
Duration: 1 hour
Rose-Ann Gush & Philipp Sattler
16:00–18:00 Workshop: ‘Living Table Epicurean Garden’
Desiree Coral & Killian Dunne
18:00–19:00 Lunch Break
19:00–20:00 Artists in Conversation
with Rose-Ann Gush, Desiree Coral & Killian Dunne
20:00 onwards Concert from Collective Playlist
Sunday 12 July
12:00–12:30 Tracing the Ocean and Common Heritage
Counter-Mapping session by Mekhala Dave
12:30–13:00 Curatorial Tour
Mekhala Dave
13:00–14:00 Break (including Pop-up Tea -Room)
14:00–15:00 Participatory Reflections: Wandering Carriers: Ivana Lazic
15:10–15:50 Guided Nature Walk Felix Gaulhofer & Christine Schörkhuber
16:00–17:00 Performance & Listening Session
Basel Naouri
17:00–18:00 Artists in Conversation with Basel Naouri, Ivana Lazic and Mekhala Dave
18:00–19:00 Break, Dinner
19:00 onwards Evening Benefit Concert
with DJ Qamareen (Raq Souna)
*Throughout the programme, the public are also invited to T-Raum, run by Xiyao and her family. With extensive knowledge of herbal and medicinal healing, Xiyao with her daughter Ronqin and partner Ernst offer refreshingly different teas, along with tongue diagnosis and TCM-recommendations for health, including buying chinese herbs. One could also book a chinese tea-ceremony or simply enjoy some refreshing chinese tea. These include green, black, oolong) hot or cold as one could prefer.
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
