September 2019
09/19/19
The Non-Human Animal Negotiating Bio-relations
Exhibition / September 28 – November 24 2019
Rebecca Digby (Sweden), Lars Brunström (Sweden), Saara Ekström (Finland), Maureen Gruben (Canada, North West Territoriers), Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir (Iceland/Germany), Eva Klasson (Sweden), Lenore Malen (USA), Fredrik Strid (Sweden)
Eight artists working internationally present sculptures, videos, installations and photographs which in a variety of ways seek to renegotiate the relationship between human beings and other species. The exhibition offers scope for play, empathy and the expression of animalistic emotions, alongside reflections on how the divide between human being and animal is in a constant state of flux. The cultural shift that is emerging in the wake of climate change, and which is already resulting in species extinction and enforced migration, is urging us to enter into genuine ecological interplay.
The project is being in run in association with Zennström professorship in climate change leadership at Uppsala university and researchers specialising in animal studies and biodiversity, along with other participants at Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. It is followed by a series of activities.
Opening and Performance / Saturday, September 28
14.00–15.00 Opening: The Non-Human Animal – Negotiating Bio-relations. Inauguration Speeches: Ian Snowball, Professor in Quaternary Geology and Director of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development. Presentations of the artists.
15.00–15.30 Performance: Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Borderline Human – Milk River Valley
Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir travelled with a research team of animal behavioural specialists to the Great Karoo in South Africa to collect observations, interviews, video and audio recordings and drawings of wild Vervet monkey troops that live on the Samara reserve. The dance theorist Noa Eshkol, South African lawyer, naturalist, poet and writer Eugène N. Marais’s story inspires the performative dance lecture. In collaboration with dancer Saga Sigurðardóttir, and influenced by the dance theorist Noa Eshkol, and South African, naturalist, poet and writer Eugène N. Marais’s story, the artists examine and animate the borderline between human and non-human beings.
Program
Sunday September 29, 13.00–16.30
Bio-relations in Uppsala. Researchers walks, mass public art making and talks. Sign up here. Thursday, October 3, 18.00–19.00 Migrants or Co-Habitors? – Animals in the Era of Climate Change Panel talk: Fredrik Strid, Lenore Malen, Erika von Essen, Håkan Tunón, Marie Kvarnström
Thursday, October 17, 18.00–19.00
Learning from Animism – To visualise Significant Otherness. Animals as choreographers, sole mates or decorative props? Panel talk: Jacob Bull, Rebecca Digby, Lars Brunström och Terje Østigård.
Sunday, November 10, 14.00–15.00
Curators guided tour: Rebecka Wigh Abrahamsson, Uppsala Art Museum
Saturday, November 23
Council of beings: The program will be announced later.