Supported by the Summa Artium Private Fund for Culture.
01.
SOCIAL IMAGINATION AND CLIMATE CRISIS
23.09. 19:00 FKSE
Interlocutors: Péter GYÖRGY and Balázs SIPOS
The introductory session of this 10-session series explores the concept of nature in the Hungarian social imagination. With the help of our guests, we will also discuss whether it is possible to decolonise thinking about the climate crisis, to take a local approach to the global ecological process, and if so, what role art can play in this. Through the work of Ádám Bodor, Miklós Jancsó and Imre Makovecz, we will explore the notions of nature that live with us culturally.
02.
SUSTAINABILITY AND NON-GROWTH
10.10 PILLARS
Tour leader: Logan STRENCHOCK, ZSÁMBOK BIOFARM
This excursion to Zsámbok Organic Farm will explore the farm and the issues of sustainability. How has our vulnerability to capitalist production become self-evident in the backdrop of urbanised life? How did we become a deskilled generation in a country with a strong agricultural tradition? Is it possible to imagine anything else?
To participate in the trip, please register at xtrorealm@gmail.com (subject: Zsámbok).
03.
ECOFEMINISM AND POST-HUMANISM
21.10. 18:00 FKSE
Our panellist: KISS Kata
Western thinking associates the world of nature with passivity and femininity, as opposed to the world of the active and culture-creating human being, embodied by the male. The ecological problems of the present, however, show that nature can no longer be seen as a passive and inexhaustible resource. At the same time, the cultural imagination, stuck in the old paradigm, is finding it difficult to find new concepts to interpret the climate crisis. This session will present ecofeminist philosophy as a way of transforming thinking, exploring ecological challenges and possible responses to them from a peripheral perspective.
Recommended reading for the discussion:
Dóra Kiss Kata. Kota Kata Dora Kata. Posthuman praxis in 21st century feminist thought. Helikon 2018/4. 452-465.
Salleh, Ariel. Ecofeminism. Turning Point 25. 146-163.
Martin Gellin. Misogyny of Climate Deniers. New Republic 28.08.2019.
04.
ITS ENERGY EFFICIENCY
11.05. 8:00-15:00 SZÁZHALOMBATTA
Tour leader: SZABÓ JOHN
With the effects of climate change intensifying, it would be of paramount importance to map and understand society's energy perceptions. However, the fossil raw materials that drive the capitalist system, and the production and consumption patterns that rely on them, make it impossible to create alternative social imaginaries. Public thinking about energy focuses on efficiency, fuel externalisation and geo-engineering. In Hungary, this determinism is even more pronounced, as the energy imaginary is shaped as a result of external influences. Wedged between the Soviet Union, and later the Russian sphere of influence, and Western Europe, the country's energy landscape has been continuously influenced by great power interests and hegemonic projects.
A tour of the Hundred Halombatta refinery will give us an insight into the oil refining process and the infrastructure needed to make it work. After the tour, we will discuss the evolution of Hungary's energy vision in the light of climate change.
Recommended reading:
Petrocultures Research Group 2016, After Oil. Available from: http://afteroil.ca/resources-2/after-oil-book/ [27.10.2019].
Huber, M 2012, 'Refined Politics: Petroleum Products, Neoliberalism and the Ecology of Entrepreneurial Life. Journal of American Studies, 46, pp. 295-312. Available from: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/resourcefictions/oil09/huberrefinedpolitics.pdf. [27 Oct 2019]
THE EXCURSION DEPARTS BUDAPEST AT 8 AM, WITH AN ORGANIZED BUS SERVICE, ARRIVING BACK AT 3 PM.
SUBMISSIONS AND APPLICATIONS to xtrorealm@gmail.com by 31 OCTOBER.
Places are limited!!!
With the effects of climate change intensifying, it would be of paramount importance to map and understand society's energy perceptions. However, the fossil raw materials that drive the capitalist system, and the production and consumption patterns that rely on them, make it impossible to create alternative social imaginaries. Public thinking about energy focuses on efficiency, fuel externalisation and geo-engineering. In Hungary, this determinism is even more pronounced, as the energy imaginary is shaped as a result of external influences. Wedged between the Soviet Union, and later the Russian sphere of influence, and Western Europe, the country's energy landscape has been continuously influenced by great power interests and hegemonic projects.
A tour of the Hundred Halombatta refinery will give us an insight into the oil refining process and the infrastructure needed to make it work. After the tour, we will discuss the evolution of Hungary's energy vision in the light of climate change.
Recommended reading:
Petrocultures Research Group 2016, After Oil. Available from: http://afteroil.ca/resources-2/after-oil-book/ [27.10.2019].
Huber, M 2012, 'Refined Politics: Petroleum Products, Neoliberalism and the Ecology of Entrepreneurial Life. Journal of American Studies, 46, pp. 295-312. Available from: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/resourcefictions/oil09/huberrefinedpolitics.pdf. [27 Oct 2019]
THE EXCURSION DEPARTS BUDAPEST AT 8 AM, WITH AN ORGANIZED BUS SERVICE, ARRIVING BACK AT 3 PM.
SUBMISSIONS AND APPLICATIONS to xtrorealm@gmail.com by 31 OCTOBER.
Places are limited!!!
05.
ECOCRITICISM OF THE APOCALYPSE
18.11. 19:30-21:30 LUMEN CAFE
Our interlocutor: DR. HÓDOSY ANNAMÁRIA
LUMEN, Budapest, Horánszky utca 5.
The number of apocalyptic films is growing, from a subgenre of cultural production to an increasingly important genre. The question arises: is this a change due to the climate crisis or to other causes? What is the ratio of environmental to apocalyptic films? How many of the latter are about ecological destruction? What worldviews, ideologies and conceptions of nature do these films convey, and do they indeed reflect a growing pessimism, guilt and helplessness, or something else? What do they reveal about our imagination about the climate crisis? Are they a manifestation of our disgust with ourselves? Are they marked by a change as time goes on? During the lecture, where we will watch many film clips, we will explore whether the clichés about such films are really true, and if so, why we continue to care (more and more) about them. What truth do we desire or expect to reveal through them? What help do we expect from them, and what help can they give?
Recommended reading:
Annamária Hódosy: "Rhetorical strategies of the biomozi. The structure of salvation history." In Biomozi. Biobiography. Hódozi, "Ecopoiesis and eco-consciousness", Szeged, Tiszatáj, 2018, 68-77.
László Sepsi, "To watch and die on the planet Earth. Cinema, disaster, anthropocene." Prae 2017/1, 80-89.
Praea, Prae, Prépe, Paper 1/1. Participation in the programmes is free of charge. The events are part of the xtro realm group's project for the 2020 edition of OFF Biennale "Air!", organised by Anna Zilahi and Rita Süveges. Our sponsor is Summa Artium.
FKSE,
Studio of Young Artists Association.
1077 Budapest, Rottenbiller utca 35.
