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
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.
Roundtable on the Ecological Imperative with our project partners Franz Krause (Lead of Emmy-Noether Research group, Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne), Gerhard Wolf (Director of the Max-Planck-Institut, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), Hubert Zapf (Professor and Chair of American Literature, University of Augsburg), as well as Gabriele Rippl and Michaela Schäuble from the Sinergia team. Peter J. Schneemann will introduce the panel and Magali Wagner will moderate the public discussion at Kornhausform Bern. The event will be held in German and is a cooperation with Kornhausforum Bern.
Toni Hildebrandt will give the Fall Public Lecture on the Anthropocene at the faculty of Italian Culture and Society at the University of St. Gallen. The lecture will examine three responses from the arts to the Fukushima disaster in 2011 and the ongoing Post-Fukushima situation. Filmmaker Ana Vaz, artist and theatre director Akira Takayama, and Ikebana master Atsunobu Katagiri react to the catastrophe with works that decentralize the human, paying attention to flowers, fireworks, gardens, insects and farm animals. In these tales of survival, the human is marginalized or temporary/spatially subtracted, to re-enter the world with a new ethical consciousness and awareness.
Register online and join the lecture on site on Tuesday, December 6, 12:15 - 1:45 pm CET
at Tellstrasse 2, room 58-424.
