CISNEROS INSTITUTE AND MoMA PRESENT ‘REWEAVING OURSELVES: CONTEMPORARY ECOLOGY THROUGH THE IDEAS OF JUAN DOWNEY’
This is the second online conference organized by the Cisneros Institute at MoMA and conceived by guest curator Julieta González as part of a three-year research initiative on the relationships between art and the environment in Latin America. (The online sessions will be in English. Videos with Spanish subtitles will be posted in December)
The conference takes as a point of departure a series of technological, anthropological, and political issues raised between the mid 1960s and the early 1980s by the work and writings of late Chilean artist Juan Downey, in order to generate a discussion on the way artists, theoreticians, ecologists, and climate change activists, among many others, are rethinking Latin America at the present.
Starting with an introductory session on the work and thought of Juan Downey, with the participation of guest curator Julieta González and scholar Javier Rivero, the conference will gather an interdisciplinary group of practitioners: architectural historian Felicity Scott, artists Eduardo Kac, Minerva Cuevas, and Beatriz Santiago, architect Paulo Tavares, Sarayaku activist Franco Viteri Gualinga, curator María Belén Sáez de Ibarra, and anthropologist Arturo Escobar.
Through the dialogue between the participants, the conference aims to give continuity to the avenues of thought and inquiry opened up by Juan Downey decades ago, untapping the cultural and social resources and forms of knowledge and relationality that have been historically suppressed in Western thought, in order to return to a more integrated way of living in our environment.
Session One - Juan Downey: Cybernetics, Ecology, and an Ontology of Becoming
A conversation between curator Julieta González and scholar Javier Rivero Ramos
Tuesday, November 10, 5:00–6:00 p.m.
Session Two - Technology for a Disoriented Humanity
A conversation between artist Eduardo Kac and scholar Felicity Scott, moderated by Julieta González
Wednesday, November 18, 5:00–6:00 p.m.
Session Three - The Cosmopolitics of the Forest
Presentations by architect and scholar Paulo Tavares, activist Franco Viteri Gualinga, and curator María Belén Sáez de Ibarra, followed by a conversation moderated by Julieta González
Tuesday, November 24, 12:00–1:00 p.m
Session Four - Beyond Technology and Development: How Can We Envision Solutions for the “Latin American Problem” Today?
Presentations by anthropologist Arturo Escobar, artists Minerva Cuevas and Beatriz Santiago, followed by a conversation moderated by Julieta González
December 1, 5-6:30 p.m.
