Entangled Matters

Altereurope Futuremanufactory: Entangled Matters at Vonderau Museum Fulda (Germany) – 11-15 July 2023

This is a recent output of my collaboration with the research group Science of Singularities: How can we reinvent Europe from an ecosystem perspective? 

Science of Singularities created a collaborative work-in-progress installation in the Vonderau Museum as well as an intervention into the collection of the museum. The installation and intervention reflected on Europe seen through the lens of an ecosystem and interrogated the Entanglement of Matters. The installation of sizable dimensions involved about 150 participants, pupils, students and citizens in the creation of an imaginary map of Europe as an Ecosystem. In a multilayered process that applied the Table of Matters as well as visual practices, the participants developed the installation step by step in a series of intensive workshops that took place each day of a full week as well as through exercises for individual visitors. The output of the collective process, the Foundland Map, will be shown in an exhibition for three months in 2024. 

Entangled Matters expands the theoretical shift of perspective that drives the research of Altereurope to the field of ecosystems and reflects on Europe as an ecosystem. It does so by referring to an interconnectedness between nature, animals, humans, and also technology – Entangled Matters. Conceiving Europe as such an interconnected ecosystem, redefines not only Europe through the introduction of the ecosystem, but also the ecosystem itself: The latter becomes a political and historical matter that evolves through human intervention. We therefore raise social questions in the context of an ecosystemic approach to Europe, for instance whether a sustainable ecosystem requires a different way of living together? Or, how the creation of a respectful relationship between all participants of the ecosystem, humans, animals, plants and vital matter can help us develop eco-sensitive forms of society?