<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Dear all,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">You are warmly invited to the last event of “<a href="http://www.top-ev.de/exhibition/leviathan/">Leviathan: A Capitalocene Beastiarium</a>” 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 <a href="https://youtu.be/8bNGC3I_Hh0">https://youtu.be/8bNGC3I_Hh0</a><br><br>The event starts at 18:00 (CET) on July 23rd. The livestreams link is: <a href="https://youtu.be/8bNGC3I_Hh0">https://youtu.be/8bNGC3I_Hh0</a><br> <br>The questions and comments will be collected via youtube chat.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br>“Sublime in the Anthropocene” - Presentation Abstract: <br>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.<br><br>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).<br><br><br></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">**<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Further details about the exhibition:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b>Leviathan: A Capitalocene Beastiarium</b><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><p>08 – 25 July 2021 | Thursday to Sunday, 15:00–20:00</p><p>TOP Transdisciplinary Project Space, Schillerpromenade 4, 12049 Berlin<br>
</p>Artists: Yoav Admoni, Lisa Glauer, Tea Mäkkipää, Sybille Neumeyer,
Jaanika Peerna, Moran Sanderovich, Kaethe Wenzel, Michael John Whelan.
<p>Conceptualization and Co-curation: Tuçe Erel, Lisa Glauer, and Kaethe Wenzel</p></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><p><i>Leviathan: A Capitalocene Beastiarium</i> 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. </p>
<p>Hobbes’ <i>Leviathan</i> 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 <i>Capitalocene</i> 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 <i>natureculture</i>. Leviathan is everywhere, we cannot see it, but we feel its breath at the back of our necks.</p>
<p>The exhibition criticizes the structures of capitalism and patriarchy in relation to Hobbes’ Leviathan and<i> Capitalocene</i>
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 <i>Leviathan</i> (2020), the exhibition discusses these systems and their impact on social, economic, and ecological spheres.</p>
<p>[1] Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. J. C. A. Gaskin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1651).</p></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br>The exhibition and public program of the exhibition is kindly supported by NEUSTART KULTUR and Fachbereich Kultur von Neukölln.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Best regards,<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br clear="all"></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><span><font color="#888888"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:normal"><font size="2"><span><span><font color="#888888"><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="georgia, serif">Tuce Erel</font><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"></span></span></div></font></span></span><a href="http://tuceerel.com" target="_blank"><font face="georgia, serif">tuceerel.com</font></a></font></div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></font></span></div><div><span><font color="#888888"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://anchor.fm/tuce-erel" target="_blank">Art Next Door</a> | The podcast is available on</font></font></span></div><div><span><font color="#888888"><font face="georgia, serif"> <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/art-next-door/id1527290427?l" target="_blank">Apple</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1YIHCQNgi3rpoxCR9wetWI" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zMDhjNmI2NC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==" target="_blank">Google</a>, and <a href="https://pca.st/tsyucibk" target="_blank">Pocket Casts</a>, <br></font></font></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>