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Dutch photography critic and curator Taco Hidde Bakker's manifesto 'Nineteen Discussions for Photographers and Artists in the Age of Climate Crisis' is the starting point for a workshop for photographers, visual artists, researchers, curators, cultural workers and students.
Taco will highlight a few statements from his manifesto. He takes you through the challenges that arts and photography are facing: What artistic practices focusing on deforestation, bio-cultural conservation and 'climate crisis' are effective? Should images go beyond representations? Is photography complicit in a complex web of extractions? What relationships can art maintain with the-other-than-human? What is the ecological footprint of photography and arts itself? And what can museums and art centers do for "the rights of nature"?
Following this introduction, participants will work in small groups and create their own "guidelines". Their findings will be presented to the whole group, after which Taco will test the outcomes of the workshop against his manifesto.
After this workshop, artists Maria Lucia Correa and Risk Hazekamp will enter into conversation with Taco. Together, they will explore connections between artistic research, climate justice and activism. How can art mediate issues of ecocide and restorative justice? What practices and strategies exist to form new relationships between human beings and nature? This follow-up discussion will be moderated by Petra Van Brabandt, Head of Research, Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp.
Taco Hidde Bakker is a writer, translator, teacher and curator in the field of the arts, specializing in photography.
This workshop is part of Rights of Nature, a two-day cross-disciplinary program by SLARG, in close collaboration with Klimaatfestival Antwerpen, FOMU, Curatorial Studies KASK Gent, and Kunsthal Extra City. Rights of Nature explores the role of law, philosophy and arts in relation to "the rights of nature". It brings together various forms of research and translates this to a wide audience.
Image: 137, Fotogramme, 70.5x50.5cm, Alnus glutinosa (Black alder), 2011 © Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky.
Image: Portrait made in 2021 by Petra Stavast with Siemens S75 (from 2005).