ONLINE SYMPOSIUM: Cohabitation – Worlding the Sinophonecene and Planetary Aesthetics in Contemporary Art

We cordially invite you to our upcoming ONLINE SYMPOSIUM "Cohabitation – Worlding the Sinophonecene and Planetary Aesthetics in Contemporary Art," the 2nd International Gathering of the Research Network for Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art (ReNetMoCoCA) on Saturday June 3rd, 2023, 9am - 4:30pm CET.

Venue: Online Zoom Meeting, hosted by Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies

Host/Chair: Franziska Koch (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf and Universität Heidelberg)

Organizing Team: Cila Brosius (independent curator), Nora Wölfing (Freie Universität Berlin), Xuan Ma (Utrecht University)

Keynote Speaker: Hai Ren (University of Arizona)

Invited Speakers and Discussants: Wenny Teo (The Courtauld Institute of Art), Suk Man Yip (University of Heidelberg), Antonie Angerer (Freie Universität Berlin), Anna-Viktoria Eschbach (TU/e Eindhoven), Mia Yu (independent curator), Liu Mankun (City University of Hong Kong), Isabelle Demin (independent researcher), Xiaofan Wu (Carleton University, Ottawa), Christopher Chan (University of California, Berkeley), Bettina Freimann (independent curator)

Please register informally by writing an email to madeleine.eppel@rose.uni-heidelberg.de to receive access information (free of charge).

The Hong Kong based artist Zheng Bo (鄭波) uses the phrase “You are the 0,01%” to highlight the infinitesimal role that humans play in the planet’s biomass. Using grass as an organic medium, he creates a living sculpture of the shockingly small number that stands in complete disproportion to the disastrous impact humans have had and continue to have on Earth. Zheng is one among a growing number of artists in the Sinophone world, who investigate different forms of cohabitation and interspecies relationships, prompting viewers to consider what planetary thinking means in relation to being locally situated.

The symposium presents case study-based papers that respond to one or more of the following questions:

• How does art from the Sinophone region negotiate the planetary complex and respond to the climate breakdown, capitalist extractivism, and environmental destruction?
• What kind and how does art envision, enable, or even perform ideas and practices of cohabitation?
• Are there culturally or historically specific ways of imagining interspecies relationships, non-human centered cosmologies, and modes of cohabitation?
• Is a term like “Sinophonecene” opening a new chapter of planetary discussion? Or does it inverse the cultural essentialist, nationalist, and human- centered thought of a “Chinese way” that contradicts a relational positionality?

Please find the detailed program, abstracts and biographies of all contributors following the link below and feel free to circulate the invitation widely. 

We are looking forward to your participation!

With kind regards, 

The Network for Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art (ReNetMoCoCa) team: Franziska Koch, Cila Brosius, Xuan Ma and Nora Wölfing 

Cohabitation – Worlding the Sinophonecene and Planetary Aesthetics in Contemporary Art program (PDF)