Ökokino

ecocinema

Press preview: Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 10am
Opening: Thursday, August 22, 2019, 7pm

Duration of the exhibition: August 23 – November 10, 2019

With contributions by Marwa Arsanios, John Chester, Adam Curtis, Greta Gaard, Nikolaus Gansterer & Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Jay L. McMullen / Rachel Carson, Rosalind Nashashibi, Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens, Lucia Steinwender, Fabrizio Terranova / Donna Haraway, Greta Thunberg and Kjersti Vetterstad

In this moment of planetary crisis, how can we mobilize a joyful, responsive way of interacting with the planet? How can we engender non-anthropocentric ecologics where we no longer think in terms of personal rights or fair exchange but rather of mutual care and empathy, in order to contribute to the benefit of all beings? Would it be possible to move on (while at the same time going back) to concepts that might guide us to act kindly towards and in resonance with planetary needs? What if we were to think of ourselves as in a continuum with the non-human and non-animal, in an affirmative, perhaps even libidinal, relation? Could we free ourselves from the idea that we must renounce something and instead experience the pleasure of living in affinity with others – plants, animals and minerals alike? The ecocinema features moving image essays and propositions that sketch out the passionate entanglements of an ecoconspiracy.

For this exhibition the TAXISPALAIS has been transformed into a cinema consisting of four theaters soundproofed with natural substances, thematically uniting a variety of film material – artistic positions, documentary feature films, television documentaries and conference interventions, some presented for the first time in Austria. Theater 1 is where the credits open for this exhibition: contemporary cinema made of sun, wind, warmth and other non-human agents, along with recent speeches by two activists. Feature film proposals about how we could, with relish, redo the equation of human and non-human actors will be presented in theater 2. Theater 3 shows major precursors of today’s discussion, and theater 4 sends us home with a number of existing practices that can be regarded as ecofeminist without claiming this title themselves.

Curated by Nina Tabassomi