Organismo | Art in Applied Critical Ecologies

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TBA21–Academy and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza present Organismo | Art in Applied Critical Ecologies, an experimental independent study program connecting research, theory, and speculation through a series of focused case studies—regenerative interventions that explore different forms of alliance. The project aims to explore new methodologies and configurations of actors when working in the service of ecological transformation.

Organismo is based on the experiences of TBA21–Academy, TBA21’s research arm and incubator for collaborative inquiry, artistic production, and environmental advocacy, which for over a decade has served as a catalyst for new forms of knowledge arising from nurturing relationships between art, science, public policy, and conservation. Joining its efforts with the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Organismo functions as a system of connections between art practices, interdisciplinary research, government bodies, and local communities to facilitate the development of plural and intersectional projects that are necessary to address the challenges and converging crises of today.   

The Year One of the independent study program, taking place between October 2024 and June 2025, departs from the learnings gathered during its experimental Year Zero edition—one that was conceived as a prototyping process in which parameters, hypotheses, and organizational structures were tested. The program will continue developing its multidisciplinary, multiagent, multiscalar, and multispecies approaches with the aim of activating collective intelligence. Foregrounding artistic practice as a driving force and building bridges between speculation and application, Organismo intends to mobilize cultural and political transformations by developing narratives and languages that allow us to imagine other ecological orders. To this end, research lines and case studies intertwine to activate theory through applied explorations and the formulation of a group proposal. Candidates need to commit to both dimensions. Organismo believes situated knowledge is vital for addressing the complexities of contemporary ecological challenges. Thus, the independent study program is structured by applied case studies that enable access to specific forms of knowledge and their interrelated actors and communities. The aim is to both activate these networks within their local conditions and to nurture the processes proposed with remote forms of experiential learning.     

In Year One, the five case studies are:

  • PyroEcologies. Fire’s Potential to Destroy and Ignite Life in the Earth System. . Facilitated by FECYT | Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología - Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, and Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación 
  • Museum Entanglement. The Thyssen and its Social Ecosystem.. Facilitated by Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza 
  • Territorio Abadía Retuerta. Forest Epistemologies for Regenerative Practices. . Facilitated by Abadía Retuerta 
  • Ocean Futurisms. New Storytelling Devices for Radical Imagination.. Facilitated by TBA21–Academy 
  • Non-Archives. Open Intelligence as Digital Archives & Experimental Publishing.. Facilitated by TBA21–Academy 


The research lines of Year One of the independent study program respond to the work carried out at TBA21–Academy since its foundation in 2011, in close connection to the interests of Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. They are organized as follows: Convivial Conservation, Ecologies of Peace, Ecologies of Technologies, and The Rights of the More-than-human.  

For the exploration of these research lines, Year One of Organismo will feature, among others: Andrew Merrie, Aouefa Amoussouvi, Chus Martínez, Daniela Zyman, Diego Blas, Dorothy Michaels, Eduardo Castillo Vinuesa, elii [oficina de arquitectura], Fernando Cucceti, Grandeza Studio, Jennifer Gabrys, Joel Vacheron, John Lynch, Jon Aranguren Juaristi, Juan Ángel López-Manzanares, Louise Carver, Maria Arnal, María Buey González, Mario Chagas, María Montero, Markus Reymann, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Michal Kucerak, Petra Linhartova, Pietro Consolandi, Rosa Ferré, Rufino Ferreras, Skye Thomas, Simón López-Trujillo, Tabita Rezaire, Tarek Atoui, Queenie Lin, and Yina Jiménez-Suriel. 

As for the independent study program, this first year has the following partners: Abadía Retuerta, Atelier itd, Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT) - Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundación Daniel y Nina Carasso, and Real Jardín Botánico CSIC.   
 

Organised by:
 

Logotipo del Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
TBA21. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Academy
© Diseño: Koln Studio
Performance
Spa Entrepreneurship: Conceptual Art for Pausing the Apocalypse and Remediating the Commons, by Cassie Thornton

A rumor is haunting the halls of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza—the rumor of a spa opening on the Danish island of Møn. Spa entrepreneur/artist Cassie Thornton of The Feminist Economics Department (the FED) will be the one to give voice to this rumor through a performance titled Unsettled Spa, which will be followed by a conversation with Uriel Fogué.  

The gimmick of the spa is that everyone is escaping violence on some level, but some more than others. What isn't said directly, but is implied, is that the people who survive extreme violence (distributed by warlords and corporations, on behalf of empire) are the ones who have key knowledge about how to heal and how to survive the most blunt challenges to life today. Unsettled Spa runs on the assumption that the violence imparted on people, places and habitats that are not seen as powerful by the faces of capital, is coming for all of us. With this assumption, even those of us who are currently privileged and protected by whiteness, waterproofing, money and fortress Europe will soon need the wisdom of healing and survival already well understood by those who have already lived through the apocalypse. These survivors are the people who the spa would mythically bring to Denmark, grant asylum to, and hire as professional healing arts technicians at Unsettled Spa. 

With nuance and humor this performance/branding campaign will lay out a beautiful story of cooperation and commoning, by telling the story about how a piece of land in Denmark is being sacrificed for the collective needs of immigration in a world filled with violence. By its very existence this campaign highlights how shallow and absurd the general responses to emergency needs for resettlement due to war and climate change are by most European countries. This satirical exploration on ideas of commonality will tackle the notion of Convivial Conservation, one of research lines of the independent study program Organismo | Art in Applied Critical Ecologies, in which this activity is framed.

Times:
From 18.00 to 19.00
Date:
22 November 2024
Place:
Auditorium
Price:
Free activity
Tickets info:
Free access until full capacity is reached
General public
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Lecturas del cielo II
Talk
Sky Readings II

As part of the programme associated with the exhibition Tabita Rezaire. Calabash Nebula and within the framework of the independent study programme Organism. Art in applied critical ecologies, a joint initiative between the Museo Thyssen and TBA21-Academy, the museum is hosting a conversation with Tania Safura Adam (journalist, curator and researcher), Elsa Casanova Sampé (artist) and Diego Blas (researcher in the Department of Physics at the UAB) on the historical intersections between science, culture and religion in concepts concerning the sky. 

Throughout history the skies have been interpreted and studied in countless ways by different communities and groups of people, with a resulting direct impact on the formation of their belief systems and socio-political structures. This conversation reassesses and analyses the meaning of these readings and how they are reflected in contemporary artistic and scientific interpretations of outer space. 

Conference in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation moderated by María Buey González and Marina Avia Estrada, TBA21.

Times:
18.30
Date:
27 November 2024
Place:
Auditorium
Price:
Free activity
Tickets info:
Free access until full capacity is reached
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Julian Mayorga 2024. © Marta Orozco
Activity in the past - Concierto
Arda la ciudad cuando arrecie el monte, con Julián Mayorga

Las canciones de Julián Mayorga son construcciones fértiles y multidimensionales. Evocan las ilusorias tierras marginales que surgen donde lo urbano y lo rural se encuentran, y hacen eco de recuerdos originarios de los barrios obreros de su Tolima natal, lugares repletos de pintura y mugre, vitalidad y color. Chak Chak Chak Chak (2024), el noveno y último disco del artista colombiano, está inyectado de interpretaciones vocales cargadas de veloces conjuros, gritos y alaridos animalescos y balbuceos psicológicos. Una dispersión rítmica generada a través de electrónica modificada, instrumentos de percusión tradicionales y objetos reutilizados. Sus letras están marcadas por un modelo agrario decididamente anticapitalista de futurismo andino. 

Este encuentro con Julián Mayorga se enmarca en la apertura del año uno del programa de estudios independientes Organismo. Arte en ecologías críticas aplicadas. En él, compartirá algunas canciones de su último disco, así como narraciones que las orbitan y les dan contexto en su proceso de creación y exhibición.

Date:
26 de octubre de 2024
Place:
Salón de actos
General public
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Tabita Rezaire, Des/Astres, 2024. Still from the videoinstallation
Activity in the past - Talk
Online dialogues: Sky Readings I

As part of the programme associated with the exhibition Tabita Rezaire. Calabash Nebula and within the framework of the independent study programme Organism. Art in applied critical ecologies, a joint initiative between the Museo Thyssen and TBA21-Academy, the museum is hosting a conversation with Aouefa Amoussouvi (researcher, artist and curator), Yussef Agbo-Ola (artist) and Tabita Rezaire (artist), moderated by Joël Vacheron (writer), on the subject of the spatial imaginaries and cosmogonies that propose restorative and decolonial futures. The Western perspective has become established as the “scientific” and therefore “correct” view of outer space. This colloquium looks at concepts of space which have been sidelined from the dominant narrative and how they can create new decolonial perceptions of it and give rise to alternative futures. 

The conversation will be streamed live on the TBA21 YouTube channel. Note. 

The primary language is English, with simultaneous translation into Spanish via auto-generated subtitles. 

Date:
6 November 2024
Place:
Online
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