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 (2021-22) (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
- Dr. Toni Hildebrandt (Advanced Postdoc and Coordinator, University of Bern)
- → See the whole project team
This conference's point of departure is remediations—understood as different forms of mediations and media formats that comment upon and refashion each other. Our conference aims to foster dialogue on plural perspectives on ecologies, enable diverse encounters, and discuss multiple engagements—synergies that thus jointly circumscribe the complex and contested term of the "ecological imperative".
With lectures by Valentina Bonifacio (University Ca' Forscari, Venice), Sria Chatterjee (Director of the Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, London), Gabriele Dürbeck (University of Vechta), Diego Mantoan (University of Palermo), Timo Müller (University Konstanz), Susan Schuppli (Goldsmiths College London), among others.
More information with a detailed program will follow in mid July.
Metamorphosen der Gegenwart is an Open Air Film Programme at the Botanical Garden of the University of Bern (BOGA). We will screen and discuss documentary and experimental films (Andrea Bordoli, Ursula Biemann, Ben Rivers, Ana Vaz) inside the BOGA. The programme, curated by Toni Hildebrandt, Peter J. Schneemann, and Magali Wagner (from the SNSF Sinergia Project Mediating the Ecological Imperative) in collaboration with Flavia Castelberg (from BOGA), is a response to the BOGA project Chronoversum – Pflanzen im Wandel der Zeit.
The Workshop Cultivating the Idea of Biodiversity: The Arts and their Languages for an Ecologist Engagement in the Public Space will take place at University of Palermo from June 6–7, 2023, with participants Gianluca Sarà (NBFC, Palermo), Emily Brady (Texas University), Endre Szécsényi, (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest), Sabrina Lo Brutto (NBFC, Palermo), Carolina Fernández-Castrillo (Universidad Carlos III Madrid), Giuseppe Venturella (NBFC, Palermo), Laura Pitingaro (artist, Italy), and Sasha Vinci (artist, Italy). Peter J. Schneemann (University of Bern) will give a lecture entitled The empty lot: Of remediating brownfields and resisting vegetation.
