[spectre] Leviathan: A Capitalocene Beastiarium, exhibition, online event invitation

[Tuçe Erel]

Dear all,

You are warmly invited to the last event of “Leviathan: A Capitalocene
Beastiarium <http://www.top-ev.de/exhibition/leviathan/>” on July 23rd, 6
pm (CET). We invited Dr. Olga Smith (University of Vienna) to present
“Sublime in the Anthropocene”, which will be live-streamed on
https://youtu.be/8bNGC3I_Hh0

The event starts at 18:00 (CET) on July 23rd. The livestreams link is:
https://youtu.be/8bNGC3I_Hh0

The questions and comments will be collected via youtube chat.


“Sublime in the Anthropocene” - Presentation Abstract:
In Hobbes’s political analogy, Leviathan overcomes the wolf-man, who
symbolically represents the untamed state of nature. This lecture proposes
to re-examine the hierarchical relationship established in this parable, by
taking account of the epistemological challenges to the notion of nature
and humankind posed by the emergence of the concept of Anthropocene. I
propose to do this through the aesthetic category of sublime to designate a
human-nature relationship predicated on renewed appreciation of nature as
uncontrollable and potentially dangerous power.

Dr. Olga Smith (University of Vienna)’s interest in the Anthropocene is
driven by her research in the field of art history, which focuses on
‘landscape’ as a form of picturing nature. This research project is
currently being developed at the University of Vienna with the support of a
Marie Curie fellowship. Dr. Smith have previously held research posts at
the Humboldt University of Berlin and University of Warwick, as well as
Tate Gallery London. She has published on contemporary art and photography,
including, as editor, Photography and Landscape (Photographies, 2019) and
Anamnesia: Private and Public Memory in Modern French Culture (Peter Lang,
2009).


**
Further details about the exhibition:

*Leviathan: A Capitalocene Beastiarium*

08 – 25 July 2021 | Thursday to Sunday, 15:00–20:00

TOP Transdisciplinary Project Space, Schillerpromenade 4, 12049 Berlin
Artists: Yoav Admoni, Lisa Glauer, Tea Mäkkipää, Sybille Neumeyer, Jaanika
Peerna, Moran Sanderovich, Kaethe Wenzel, Michael John Whelan.

Conceptualization and Co-curation: Tuçe Erel, Lisa Glauer, and Kaethe Wenzel

*Leviathan: A Capitalocene Beastiarium* is a research-based exhibition
project, which unpacks “human nature” and “law of nature”, inspired by
Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan (1651) [1] and  Capitalocene, a concept coined
by Jason W. Moore and Donna Haraway.

Hobbes’ *Leviathan* is recognized as one of the first texts to criticize
existing power relationships, problems of collective violence and the
instrumentalization of religion for the implementation of a class
hierarchy. Leviathan represents capitalism’s giant systems, hierarchies,
and infrastructures designed to mandate, oppress, and manage human and
non-human beings and finally reinforce the anthropocentric position of
humankind. Hobbes discussed the power of human masses, or collectives, and
the constant aggression of humans against each other, which seems to
describe the *Capitalocene* era. On the edge of the sixth mass extinction,
ecological crisis, and the alienation of humans from the non-human world,
Leviathan is still standing. It continues to expand – enlarging and
invading the mind, society, politics, and *natureculture*. Leviathan is
everywhere, we cannot see it, but we feel its breath at the back of our
necks.

The exhibition criticizes the structures of capitalism and patriarchy in
relation to Hobbes’ Leviathan and* Capitalocene* concept, which Moore and
Haraway proposed against the Anthropocene era. The invited works are
pointing to the destruction of the Earth’s ecologies through such systems.
Positioning Kaethe Wenzel’s *Leviathan* (2020), the exhibition discusses
these systems and their impact on social, economic, and ecological spheres.

[1] Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. J. C. A. Gaskin (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1651).

The exhibition and public program of the exhibition is kindly supported by
NEUSTART KULTUR and Fachbereich Kultur von Neukölln.


Best regards,

Tuce Erel
tuceerel.com

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