Maria Puig de la Bellacasa will be speaking at La Biennale di Venezia within the event Commonism (On cohabitation), part of the Swamp School curated by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas (MIT) September 24-29 2018. See full programme here http://swamp.lt/.

Commonism (On cohabitation) at the Swamp School, “[t]hrough contributions by theorists, designers and artists […] will interrogate the commons as an ideology - an aesthetic of the real - as a way of giving a form to society and our contemporary human condition. With an understanding of aesthetics as ‘the art of thinking beautifully,’ as way of seeing a better, more beautiful world, this chapter will learn from the reciprocating movements for the commons asking questions: how is the commons constituted in society, how does it shape our reality of living together, and what strategies and what aesthetics do artistic commoners follow?”

Maria is presenting (together with Dimitris Papadopoulos) a paper with the title: Eco-commoning in the Aftermath: Sundews, Mangroves and Swamp Insurgencies

Abstract: Ecological degradation and the anthropogenic derangement of planetary cycles can’t be confronted as one general problem to be solved at once by institutions. And yet, down-to-earth eco-commoning is also challenged by an unsettling of ecological cycles so vast that no restitution and reparation seem possible. We turn for hope to coexistences between plants, animals, and humans, by which life worlds regenerate beyond extractivism, productionism, and coloniality; to transformative involvements within multifarious ecologies that assert interdependency, commensality, and the gradual building of the eco-commons. Exploring the meanings of remediation practices and imaginaries, of efforts to labour with plants, animals, and microbial processes struggling within toxic regimes, we are inspired by the minor healings of mangroves, the struggles of sundews, and stories of more-than-human swamp insurgency and survival.

The video of the talk and the corresponding interview are shown below.

Talk:

Interview: