BECOMING EARTH | 2021
ASSEMBLAGE OF ONLINE VIDEO ESSAYS
Initiate by Maria Belén de Saez de Ibarra from the Art Museum in Bogota, I was commissioned to create an online monograph on my ecological and climate related video works from 2011 to 2021 in a bilingual English/Spanish edition.
Rather than a printed volume, we felt that a monograph of my work needs to strongly rely on the audiovisual experience, including video clips and audio recordings on my field experience. Becoming Earth is a videoessayistic presentation of my artistic practice which has always embraced video-making, writing and lecture-presentations in public spaces. In fact, the composition is inspired by the format I have developed in my lecture-presentations which consist of a reflective reading over video stills, photographs and video clips, some of which include themsleves voice-over performed by myself. I always considered these presentations art works in and of themselves. Hence, Becoming Earth is more than a publication of existing works, it is also, first and foremost, an aesthetic producion.
Over the years, I have widely published on my video works. The texts in Becoming Earth are a stringent version of the research and ideas that went into these works and it includes an introduction on the Poetics and Politics of Worlding where I expand on my thoughts, motivations and decions behind these videos.
Etienne Turpin edited the texts –I'll be forever grateful to him for tackling this daunting task– and Traducciones Lambe & Nieto in Valencia translated them into Spanish. The project is beautifully designed by the El Altillo design collective in Bogota.
BECOMING EARTH went online on March 1, 2021.
BECOMING EARTH LAUNCH EVENT (USE THIS LINK)
May 6th, 2021 at 13h00 Bogota / 20h00 Berlin
Bilingual Broadcast in English & Spanish
12h30 Bogotá / 13h30 New York / 19h30 Zurich
– Deep Weather & Acoustic Ocean screening
13h00 Bogotá / 14h00 New York / 20h00 Zurich
– artist & guests live discussion for approx. 2 hours
Speakers will be Rosi Braidotti, Kodwo Eschun, Helene Guenin, Marisol de la Cadena, Maria Belen Saez and Ursula Biemann, intercut by video contributions by Eduardo Kohn, Elizabeth Povinelli, and Emmanuel Alloa.
We take the opportunity of the Becoming Earth launch event to introduce the philosophies which have helped shape Ursula’s political-environmental art practice to a Colombian audience. In the current political climate of Colombia, it is eminently important at this moment to connect the current ecological crises with histories and legacies of coloniality, as well as to acknowledge Indigenous efforts for safeguarding the forest and connect these struggles with a generative, eco-centric paradigm for international action. This is why we are inviting a group of distinguished thinkers who can provide a theoretical context for this critical moment and help develop the conceptual necessary tools to continue thinking and practicing in creative, encouraging, and emancipatory ways.
The launch event is hosted by the Art Museum at UNAL in Bogota and is designed and moderated by Etienne Turpin.