Forest as a Field of Mind Let’s talk about... The MACBA Collection
The artist Ursula Biemann is represented in the MACBA Collection with her work Performing the border (1999). Even though her work is not currently exhibited in the Museum’s rooms, we have taken advantage of Biemann’s stay in the city to invite her to talk about her most recent work.
The protagonist of Ursula Biemann’s videos in recent years is the figure of the indigenous scientist who emerges from a shared history of colonialism and the apparition of modern science. Commissioned by the Museo de Arte at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2018, Biemann has carried out extensive fieldwork in the Amazon jungle. This has given rise to several artistic productions, the video Forest Mind, and Devenir Universidad, a collaborative project involving the co-creation of a biocultural indigenous university in the Amazon. Based on an international partnership, this visionary project aims to build a bridge between indigenous knowledge systems and modern science, fostering a supportive eco-centric worldview. The conference will raise the question of how art can help decolonise knowledge and drive the transition from an extractive paradigm to a more generative and imaginative one. If images are not limited to representing already existing realities, but rather they contribute to the creation of reality, to the creation of the world, what role can the creation of images play in the encounter with the living cognitive territory?
Activity organized in collaboration with Festival Panoramic.
The Let’s talk about... programme creates spaces for discussion based on the museum’s Collection and exhibitions, between various agents and artists from the city and the public that come to visit us. It is a meeting space that regards exhibitions as powerful devices to activate the imagination and generate rhetoric that often goes beyond the readings planned by the institution and the curatorial team. On this occasion, we give a voice to artists to talk about their work and their relationship with the work of others.
Participant
Ursula Biemann
The lecture will be in English. If you have any question, feel free to contact us on 93 481 33 68 or by email at macba [at] macba [dot] cat
