I AM ANOTHER YOU – A CONFERENCE ON THE BODY. Mediating intimacy and body politics
CONFERENCE| 14 December 2022, 9.00 – 19.00 | CINETic
VR SHOWCASE | 14 – 21 December 2022 | 18.00 – 21.00 | CINETic – CAVE
The Research, Development, Innovation Department within the National University of Theater and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, together with the MANEKINO Cultural Association and KAJET Journal, invite you on Wednesday, December 14th, 2022, to the symposium I AM ANOTHER YOU – A CONFERENCE ON THE BODY. Mediating Intimacy and Body Politics.
The symposium takes place at CINETic UNATC (Tudor Arghezi Street 3-b, Bucharest) and marks the end of the Mediation Program within the project “You are another me – A cathedral of the body“, which took place between March and November 2022, in partnership with HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, in collaboration with 5 universities from Romania and Italy: UNATC – National University of Theater and Film “I.L. Caragiale” Bucharest, CESI – Center of Excellence in Image Studies of the University of Bucharest, Università Iuav di Venezia, UNAGE – University of Arts “George Enescu” Iași, UAD – University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca.
Coordinated by Larisa Oancea (art historian and researcher) and Daniel Neugebauer (director of the Department of Communication and Cultural Education of HKW Berlin), the mediation program brought together in Venice, during the last 8 months, 37 young researchers and students from 7 countries (Romania, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Finland, and Turkey), and a variety of academic fields: art history, cinema, philosophy, performing arts, architecture, and design. They had the important role of ensuring the mediation process of the exhibition content in relation to the visiting public at the Romanian Pavilion and at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice, on the one hand. On the other hand, the mediators sought to extend and deepen the artistic research on intimacy and corporeality that gave rise to the project. The research dimension had as centers of interest the participatory relationship and the cognitive-emotional impact of artistic experiences on visitors, as well as the potential for learning and transformation through a ‘bodily’ experience of artistic processes.
The symposium I AM ANOTHER YOU – A CONFERENCE ON THE BODY. Mediating intimacy and body politics will provide a space for debate and reflection, placing the transdisciplinary artistic research that formed the basis of the project, in the context of current conversations in the international academic and artistic environment, about the pressing issues of body politics. Moderated by the curators Cosmin Costinaș and Viktor Neumann, the event will consist of a series of panels, debates and presentations, which will bring into dialogue the experiences of the participants in the mediation program, as well as contributions by keynotes, professionals, academics and researchers:
- Lennard J. Davis – author, PhD professor at the University of Chicago Illinois, and pioneer of academic disability studies, working at the intersection of culture, medicine, disability, biotechnology and language; co-author of the landmark publication ‘Enforcing Normalcy’ (1995) and editor of the ‘Disability Studies Reader’ (1997);
- Elizabeth Freeman – university professor and author, specialist in gender, sexuality, and queer studies, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of California;
- Bogdan Popa – researcher and specialist in political and gender studies; he taught, among others, at the University of Michigan, Indiana University and the University of Bucharest; author of ‘De-Centering Queer Theory: Communist Sexuality in the Flow During and After the Cold War’ (Manchester University Press, 2021);
- Victor Ciobotaru – queer activist, founder of the Romanian LGBT Christian Association and member of the Organizing Committee of the Eastern European and Central Asian LGBT Christian Forum. His academic background includes theological, sociological and political studies, with a master’s degree in gender and minority policies. He is currently a PhD student at the National University of Political Sciences in Bucharest, with a research on the profound impact that fundamentalism has on human rights for different social groups in Romania;
- Daria Ghiu – historian and art critic, cultural journalist (Radio Romania Cultural, Dilema Veche, Publishing House Radio etc.); doctor in art history from the National University of Arts in Bucharest, with a thesis on the history of the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale, and associate lecturer at CESI – Center of Excellence in Image Studies, University of Bucharest;
- Ciprian Făcăeru – VR designer and immersive media artist, co-founder and creative director of Augmented Space Agency, the group of VR designers together with whom artist Adina Pintilie designed the VR installation ‘You are another me – A cathedral of the body’; PhD student and VR/AR/MR researcher at the International Center for Research and Education in Creative Innovative Technologies – CINETic within UNATC Bucharest;
- Robert McRuer – university professor and theorist, one of the most important contributors in the field of cultural studies and critical queer and crip theory, author of the reference works ‘Crip Times: Disability, Globalization, and Resistance‘ (2018) and ‘Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability‘ (2006), focusing on the cultural spaces where the critical queer and disabled perspective challenges the hegemony of hetero-normativity and able-normativity;
- Antonio Centeno – filmmaker and activist for the rights of people with different bodies from the norm, one of the founding members of the Spanish Movement for Independent Life and Diversity (FVID Foro de Vida Independiente y Diversidad), who in the mid-2000s launched the term of ‘ functional diversity’ to transcend the normative distinctions between the notions of “abled” and “disabled”.
In the context of the Symposium I AM ANOTHER YOU – A CONFERENCE ON THE BODY. Mediating intimacy and body politics, there will also be a VR installation showcase entitled You are another me – A cathedral of the body which will be presented between 14 and 21 December 2022 (6PM-9PM), at CINETic (Tudor Arghezi Street 3-b, Bucharest). The installation was developed by the artist Adina Pintilie in collaboration with a collective of VR designers from the Augmented Space Agency (Ciprian Făcăeru, Sabin Șerban and Dan Făcăeru) and CINETic UNATC. The installation can be explored by appointment at the following email address: info@cathedralofthebody.com.
PROGRAM
9.00 – 9.30 Welcoming the participants. Morning coffee.
9.30 – 10.00 Conference Opening
PANEL 1
10.00 – 11.00 Daria Ghiu and Victor Ciobotaru in conversation with Cosmin Costinaș & Viktor Neumann
PANEL 2
11.00 – 11.30 Input 1 Bogdan Popa
11.30 – 12.00 Input 2 Lennard J. Davis
12.00 – 12.30 Q&A Session. Moderators: Cosmin Costinaș & Viktor Neumann
12.30 – 12.45 Coffee break
PANEL 3
12.45 – 13.15 Input 3 Robert McRuer, Crip Intimacy, Crip World-Making
13.15 – 13.45 Input 4 (zoom) Antonio Centeno
13.45 – 14.15 Q&A Session. Moderators: Cosmin Costinaș & Viktor Neumann
14.15 – 15.15 Lunch
PANEL 4
15.15 – 16.45 Biennale Mediators Round Table: Reflections on Bodies
Intro Moderator: Daniel Neugebauer (5’): Core question: Which role does/did your or other bodies play? How diverse was the audience? What is the percentage of meaningful encounters? What was your take on Corpoliteracy?
Impulse 1 (15’): Monica Seiceanu (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), You Are Another Me: An Antidote to Otherness (ZOOM)
Discussion 1 (10’): Queer theory vs conservative art practices.
Impulse 2 (15’): Margherita Falqui (IUAV, Venice), Bodies of care. An analysis of Adina Pintilie’s work through the lens of care
Discussion 2 (10’): Not touch me not – but then what? Reflecting cross-mediality.
INTERVENTION (5’): Practicing touch and no touch
Impulse 3 (15’): Emilian Lungu (CESI, Bucharest), On the abject and the non-normative body
Discussion closure (15’): Sociopolitical analysis: Who was there? >From where in Europe? With what agenda? How to navigate that → question to our new experts as closing round.
MEDIATORS PANEL
Daniel Neugebauer, Mediation Program Coordinator
Larisa Oancea, Mediation Programme Coordinator
Defne Ar, IUAV Venice
Iuliana Bărăboi, UNAGE Iași
Lucas Begendi, IUAV Venice
Elena Belciu, UNATC Bucharest
Antonio Darius Brătoiu, CESI Bucharest
Lucian Paul Căldărescu, UNAGE Iași
Margherita Caldiero, IUAV Venice
Fabio Cavallari, IUAV Venice graduate
Teodor Cazan, TUM Munich
Raluca Elena Covaci, CESI Bucharest
Iuliana Daniliuc, UNATC Bucharest
Margherita Falqui, IUAV Venice
Silvia Francis Berry, IUAV Venice
Miruna Găman, CESI Bucharest
Andreea-Elena Goța, UAD Cluj-Napoca
Dan Iliuta, CESI Bucharest
Emilian Lungu, CESI Bucharest
Sophia Mayr, University of Vienna graduate
Iuliana Georgiana Mirică, UNATC Bucharest
Marius Miron, UNATC Bucharest
Tatiana Moise, Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris
Daria Nedelcu, UNARTE Bucharest
Maria Mălcică, CESI Bucharest
Linda Motto, IUAV Venice
Emanuele Pesa, IUAV Venice
Gavril Pop, UVT Timișoara graduate
Maria Rusu, UAD Cluj-Napoca
Juliette Schwartz, IUAV Venice
Monica Seiceanu, Sorbonne Paris
Andrea Isabel Stanciu, UNATC Bucharest
Daiana Stănușoiu, UNATC Bucharest
Roxana Anca Ioana Stoica, UNATC Bucharest
Tytti Tuomola, IUAV Venice
Tommaso Turchet, IUAV Venice
Cristiana Ursache, UNAGE Iași
Davida Zimmerman, TUM Munich
PANEL 5
16.45 – 17.45 Sensoriality – the cornerstone of human performativity. Interdisciplinary research panel for UNATC PhD students.
16.45 – 17.00 Ciprian Făcăeru, Another You: A Case of Virtual Embodiment
17.00 – 17.15 Ana Vicovan, Creating art with chronically ill children, a pretext for authentic connection
17.15 – 17.30 Andrei Atabay
17.30 – 17.45 Q&A Session. Moderator: Elena Belciu
17.45 – 18.00 Coffee break
FINAL INPUT
18.00 – 18.30 Input 5 Elizabeth Freeman (zoom)
18.30 – 19.00 Q&A Session. Moderators: Cosmin Costinaș & Viktor Neumann
19.00 Closing of the Conference