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. Session conveners: Toni Hildebrandt und Peter J. Schneemann, University of Bern.

De León's talk will conclude the exhibition Confronting Hostile Terrains (19.08.21-11.09.21) that examines the political causes and existential consequences of lethal border politics and aims to humanize the often-anonymous victims of border regimes and asylum systems. Confronting Hostile Terrains will center the participatory exhibit Hostile Terrain 94 from the Undocumented Migration Project directed by Jason De León. Two more interventions that explore migration and internal bordering complete the exhibition. These include Wasser from artist Sarah Hildebrand and Living in Direct Provision directed by anthropologist Darcy Alexandra.

Qiao Hu has been awarded a scholarship by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to pursue her PhD research at the University of Bern. Her research project Mapping the Smellscape of Altermodern: Olfactory Art and Multidimensional Art History will explore how olfactory art brings into play the concept of relational aesthetics in order to reflect on the smellscape in altermodern, in which viewers' positions are replaced by participants and relations. Her dissertation project is part of the subproject Formations of the Ethical Imperative: From Postmodernity to Relational Aesthetics and the Contemporary Period, 1960–2019, under the lead of Prof. Dr. Peter J. Schneemann.

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

Roundtable with Dr. Toni Hildebrandt (SNSF Mediating the Ecological Imperative), Markus Reymann (Director of the TBA21–Academy, Venice), Mareike  Dittmer (Director of Public Engagement, TBA21–Academy, Venice) and Karin Zindel (Co-Leitung Geschäftsstelle Dossier Nachhaltigkeit, ZHdK), Moderation: Dr. Gabrielle Schaad, Co-Curator Le Foyer – in Process.

Speakers included Darcy Alexandra (Social Anthropology, Bern), Andrea Bordoli (Social Anthropology, Bern), Claus Beisbart (Philosophy, Bern), Alice Gustson (Art History, Bern), Toni Hildebrandt (Art History, Bern), Petra Tjitske Kalshoven (Anthropology, Manchester), Peter Krieger (Art History, Mexico City), Deborah Madsen (American Literature, Geneva), Gabriele Rippl (North American Literature and Culture, Bern), Jonathan Sarfin (North American Literature, Bern), Michaela Schäuble (Social Anthropology, Bern), Peter Schneemann (Art History, Bern), as well as an artist lecture by Minerva Cuervas (Mexico City).

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rippl will give a Keynote (in German) at the Symposium “Kulturelle Nachhaltigkeit lernen und lehren”, Pädagogische Hochschule Niederösterreich.

With contributions by Hannah Baader, Toni Hildebrandt, Peter Krieger, Ursula Kluwick, Michi Knecht, Virginia Richter, Gabriele Rippl, Michaela Schäuble, Peter J. Schneemann, Ursula Ströbele, Hubert Zapf and a Keynote by Christof Mauch (Director, Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich).

Tsinghua Arts and Design Institute in Milan, Prof. Dr. Peter Krieger on “Aesthetics and Ecology – Research Concepts”

Interview (German) with cPI Prof. Dr. Peter J. Schneemann, Institute of Art History, University of Bern