The SNF project “Mediating the Ecological Imperative: Formats and Modes of Engagement” is a joint research project of the Institutes of Art History, American Studies and Social Anthropology at the University of Bern. In addition, a collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is being realized. Research focuses on the visual politics of climate change, the role of ecological issues in art and literature, and social engagement with the environment in indigenous cultures. The philosopher Hans Jonas coined the term “ecological imperative” in his book Das Prinzip Verantwortung (The Principle of Responsibility, 1979), in which he formulated an ecological maxim for action based on Immanuel Kant’s “Categorical Imperative”: “Act in such a way that the effects of your actions are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life on earth”. → Read more about the project
- Prof. Dr. Peter J. Schneemann (Lead, University of Bern)
- Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rippl (University of Bern)
- Prof. Dr. Michaela Schäuble (University of Bern)
- Prof. Dr. Peter Krieger (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
- Dr. Toni Hildebrandt (Advanced Postdoc and Coordinator, University of Bern)
- → See the whole project team
The 5th Swiss Congress for Art History will be held in Zurich from 22 to 24 June 2022. Organized jointly by the Swiss Association of Art Historians (VKKS) and the Institute for Art History of the University of Zurich (Kunsthistorisches Institut der Universität Zürich), the Congress is aimed at art historians, art researchers and experts from all fields (including both practice and theory), and all institutions.
The work of artists is essential for the mediation and communication of ecological interdependencies: in pointing out and criticizing problematic conditions and phenomena as well as in actively intervening in environment-related discourses or even in directly engaging the environment itself. By means of images, materialities or scenarios, the artistic techniques of the present are able to fill gaps between scientific implications and social transformations with creative processes. The artists' agency takes a central role in addressing the comprehensive ecological challenges of our time.
This series is generously sponsored by the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.
Colloque suisse de la revèle en histoire de l'art / Nachwuchskolloquium für Kunstgeschichte in der Schweiz 2021, Department of Art History and Archeology, University of Fribourg
