29.3.22 — 30.3.22
POLYMORPH — Interactice Exhibition *** Gessnerallee Zurich
29.3.22 — 30.3.22
POLYMORPH — Interactice Exhibition *** Gessnerallee Zurich
29.3.22 — 30.3.22
POLYMORPH — Interactice Exhibition *** Gessnerallee Zurich
Block#4

POLYMORPH
INTERACTIVE
EXHIBITION
29-30.3.2022

Watch Documentary
Programme

POLYMORPH
INTERACTIVE
EXHIBITION
29-30.3.2022

OTHERWISE is a collaborative platform that explores the potential of artistic collaborative research to contribute to societal and ecological transformations.

We host biannual labs which invite artists, designers, researchers and the public to envision futures beyond human exceptionalism.

In our 2021 theme, POLYMORPHIC FUTURES, we are exploring indeterminacy and what it means to be many and none at once.

OTHERWISE is a collaborative platform that explores the potential of artistic collaborative research to contribute to societal and ecological transformations.

POLYMORPHIC FUTURES is the theme of this year’s festival edition. We invited a group of artists, designers and researchers who will collectively envision a post-anthropocentric future by deconstructing human-centered hierarchies, questioning the dichotomy between the artificial and the natural, and creating an ever-changing, shape-shifting subjectivity in symbiosis with the multitude of forms.

OTHERWISE is a collaborative platform that explores the potential of artistic research to contribute to societal and ecological transformations.

Over 8 months, artists, designers and researchers will exchange their ideas and practices, and develop a performative display of their ongoing learnings.
2.6.2021
4.6.2021
Past Event

Mutagenesis describes the mutation of DNA via spontaneous reaction with environmental processes or deliberate engineering. Damage and repair occur as results of the very same processes, challenging a normative reading of mutations.

#virology #biohacking #metabolicprocesses

29.3.2022
30.3.2022
Gessnerallee

Polymorphic is that which describes many forms and none at the same time. It is a state of constant transition with any fixed form only being a temporary expression. Our speculative symposium will bring together the common research trajectories.

#performance #symposium #newopenings

6.10.2021
8.10.2021
Past Event

Symbiosis is the voluntary or necessary collaboration between two different species. Parasitic or mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationships are survival strategies based on physical attachment. What does it mean to think of ourselves as more-than-one?

#biology #queerecology #parasiteorsymbiont

28.7.2021
30.7.2021
Past Event

If a crisis results in trauma, what kind of trauma does the environmental crisis create? And is there a cure? How can we think of transformation without falling back it neoliberal parols that promote every “failure” as an opportunity for growth? Ultimately, how can the performing arts support us in navigating the complex challenge the environmental crises poses?

#psychology #roleplay #CBT

Wed
28.7.2021
19:00
Control Wars
Interactive game with Grace Turtle Polifroni, Becoming Collective
(
ESP / NL
)

We will explore and play with Control Wars, a game, and at the laboratory, offering a platform to its participants to examine and transcend systemic inertias engendering the present surface potentials for alternative realities from the imaginaries of emerging philosophical and theoretical discourse and worldviews.

Participants will experiment with character development, auto-fiction, and world-building in this session, invoking relational and subjective transformations.

Streaming link
will be announced on the day of the event
ENTER HERE (Zoom)
Thu
29.7.2021
19:00
The Future of the Earth
Patrick Gusset
(
CH
)

Pre-enacting Climate Scenarios: Patrick tries to make climate futures available through the process of pre-enactment. Performed scenarios consist exclusively of scientific studies, their data, tables, diagrams and texts. Through pre-enactment, these scenarios come into use, which couples the reception of knowledge to a concrete spatial, temporal and sensual experience. The performative scenario thus evokes experiences that move beyond text-based or visual scenarios.

Streaming link
will be announced on the day of the event
ENTER HERE (Zoom)
Thu
29.7.2021
20:00
Masquerade
Bernadette Köbele
(
CH
)

Bernadette will take you along the path of her colonial family story in Indonesia in the beginning of the 20th century and towards her interest in the postcolonial field: the masquerade of colonial society. The masquerade is a social technique which comes into use in contemporary white- and greenwashing narratives and practices of well-known multinationals and scientific researchers. Masquerade exceeds the radius far more than the notion of the white disguise is mapping

Streaming link
will be announced on the day of the event
ENTER HERE (Zoom)
Fri
30.7.2021
19:00
Reflecting: Wallmapu ex situ
Presentation by Trop Cher to share
(
CH / CHL
)

Aldir Polymeris, Nina Willimann and Jose Cáceres Mardones will present the long-term project "Wallmapu ex situ", which deals with the history of Wallmapu in southern Chile. In the context of a speculative role play, experts from Chile and Switzerland take the perspective of non-human beings, who have become witnesses, observers, affected or profiteers of the transformation of this region from an indigenous territory to a landscape reshaped by agribusiness and plantation economy.

Streaming link
will be announced on the day of the event
ENTER HERE (Zoom)
Fri
30.7.2021
19:45
Traumatic Landscapes
Podium & Open Discussion
(
)

Although the climate crisis is a global phenomenon, its impacts are asymmetrically distributed. Global injustices are becoming increasingly apparent as a result of this process. Against centuries of violence and resource exploitation in the name of progress, who has the right to grieve? In this panel, we will discuss the uneven relationship between climate change and colonial histories. What traumas lie buried in landscapes around the world? How can they be uncovered and reclaimed? What evidence do they bear? And how do we orient ourselves in slowly vanishing worlds?


OTHERWISE fellows,  Trop cher to share, and Psychologists 4 Future, an initiative that provides psychological support for climate activists, come together to discuss the notion of climate trauma.

Streaming link
will be announced on the day of the event
ENTER HERE (Zoom)

OTHERWISE  — Polymorphic Futures is a hybrid festival dedicated to the potential of artistic research to contribute to societal and ecological transformations.

Over 1 year and in 4 on- and offline symposia, artists, designers and researchers will explore and share in various formats their own practices and urgent questions.

THE ONLINE PROGRAMME is divided into 4 blocks. Every block is dedicated to an own subject. The last block will be the final contribution of all associated artists at Gessnerallee Zurich.

OPENING
We have curated an engaging programme that explores ‘the polymorphic’ in 5 thematic blocks over the coming months. The programme will be opened by:

Sensing Gaia – Listen Back*,
a sonic installation by Merle Ibach, Patrick Salz, and Paul Heinicker.

Browse the virtual space on your own or join our HANGOUT on Sunday, 11/04 6–8PM.

*Planet Earth can no longer be thought without mankind since many changes are already irreversible. What if thinking mankind without the Earth doesn't make sense either? The planet Earth isn't just a passive playground but rather it's the main actor in a comprehensive and dynamic ecosystem. Therefore, climate change phenomena become perceptible indicators for profound system changes and witnesses of preceding processes at the same time. The compositions are based on field recordings from different European rural and urban locations. They are arranged as a free interpretation of the physical processes of defracting, rearranging, melting, and heating. https://sensinggaia.tools/

A hybrid space for hybrid practices

OTHERWISE consists of our 2021 residents, a public programme everyone can attend via live stream, and featured initiatives by our alumni and community.

The 2021 edition Polymorphic Futures explores via 3 research blocks how biological, chemical, geological, and societal processes can be thought in conjunction. By emphasising any form as only transitory Polymorphic Futures embraces ambiguity and metamorphosis.

*OTHERWISE Fossil by Davide Piscitelli: artist, researcher and alumni of our 2019 edition. https://davidepiscitelli.com/

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