Art-Science Collaborations: Gaps, Friction and Injustice in Knowledge Creation Closing symposium as part of the EcoArtLab project

There is a growing surge in collaborations between artists, scientists, and the public that address the climate crisis and ecological sustainability. It has become almost common sense to claim that transdisciplinarity is the only adequate response to the climate crisis, bridging the gap between knowledge and action, and that bringing artists and scientists together will somehow unlock new ways of knowing, sensing, and transforming society.

This symposium invites to critically reflect on lessons from several decades of art-science collaborations in the field of the climate crisis and ecological issues. Rather than highlighting projects as success stories, we focus on the hidden spots of collaborations: -What is achieved in these art-science collaborations, and what remains unsolved? -Why do we still see countless artist-in-lab-programmes, yet almost no scientists embedded in artists' studios? -Who truly benefits from these initiatives, and which target groups are reached? -Which inequalities are reproduced through funding structures, disciplinary hierarchies, and staying inside the bubble? Whose perspectives are still missing? -And what about the messy, uncomfortable dimensions of collaboration, such as failure, frictions, emotional labor, contamination? How do we confront questions of epistemic injustice?

Through panel discussions and working groups, the event aims to lay the groundwork for nothing less than a(nother) manifesto on art-science collaborations in the context of the climate crisis and ecosocietal change.

Speakers and contributors

Monica Bello (Platform Dalí, ES), Eric Nanchen (HippoCampus, CH), Tara Lasrado (Curator, Arvae, CH), Sally De Kunst (curator, facilitator & writer, CH), Laura Giudici (Vert le Future, CH), Katharina Schneider-Roos (B Lab, CH), Payal Parekh (Climate Justice Activist & Consultant, CH), Jana Thierfelder (Eawag; ZHdK,CH), Sapna Kumar (UniBE, CH), Juliana Robles de la Pava (HKB, CH), Catarina Fontoura (Falmouth University, UK/PT), Sara Blanco Ramìrez ( UZH & UCR, CH/CR), Karin Fink (HSLU, BAFU, CH), Benjamin Sunarjo (Performance artist and curator, CH), Collective Terravibe (CH)

Free admission. Please register by email by 16 September at thubten.shontshang@hkb.bfh.ch