Promise No Promises!

Birds and cats is the ninth episode that follows a conversation with artist Laure Prouvost. The title of this podcast stems from one of the first questions Sonia Fernández Pan, the curator of this podcast asked Laure Prouvost during the conversation, inspired by the multiple characters Laure embodies through her projects. Her answer to the question about who she would like to be if she wasn't herself was "a bird", commenting on this animal's ability to fly. Sonia added that she would like to be a cat, perhaps because one of its great talents is the daily right to laziness in a world where life works relentlessly. They ended the conversation by returning to our animal relationship as bird and cat, with Laure flirting with the possibility that one catches and eats the other.  In the many biographies that Laure Prouvost has written about herself over the years the artist strays from traditional artist biographies, describing her work according to the narrative and experiential drive of her projects and her way of naming them to ones where the institutional curriculum is replaced by a list of situations that her projects were able to create: Melting Into Another, an Occupied Paradise, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, a Waiting Room with objects, a New Museum for Grand Dad, A tearoom for Grand Ma, a lobby for love among the artists… Within these places we are no longer an impersonal audience, but characters who enter temporal worlds where fiction becomes materially present and real. The difference between fiction and lying is a question Sonia Fernández Pan also shared with Laure Prouvost, inspired by how she never fully reveals what is fiction and what is not in her work. The storytelling surrounding her artistic practice is another element of her work, strategically confusing spheres that the traditional art system insists on keeping apart. This conversation with Laure Prouvost took place in April 2022 in separate places. Sonia Fernández Pan was listening to Laure Prouvosts words from the computer and paying attention to the sound of the strokes of a drawing that Laure brought into their meeting. There are many similarities between writing and drawing. Both arise from the body; both produce a physical and intimate relationship between head and hands. The strokes of Laure's drawing added sound textures to her words. To listen to her voice and strokes, come in and enjoy.

Birds and cats is the ninth episode that follows a conversation with artist Laure Prouvost. The title of this podcast stems from one of the first questions Sonia Fernández Pan, the curator of this podcast asked Laure Prouvost during the conversation, inspired by the multiple characters Laure embodies through her projects.  Her answer to the question about who she would like to be if she wasn't herself was "a bird", commenting on this animal's ability to fly. Sonia added that she would like to be a cat, perhaps because one of its great talents is the daily right to laziness in a world where life works relentlessly. They ended the conversation by returning to our animal relationship as bird and cat, with Laure flirting with the possibility that one catches and eats the other.  In the many biographies that Laure Prouvost has written about herself over the years the artist strays from traditional artist biographies, describing her work according to the narrative and experiential drive of her projects and her way of naming them to ones where the institutional curriculum is replaced by a list of situations that her projects were able to create: Melting Into Another, an Occupied Paradise, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, a Waiting Room with objects, a New Museum for Grand Dad, A tearoom for Grand Ma, a lobby for love among the artists… Within these places we are no longer an impersonal audience, but characters who enter temporal worlds where fiction becomes materially present and real. The difference between fiction and lying is a question Sonia Fernández Pan also shared with Laure Prouvost, inspired by how she never fully reveals what is fiction and what is not in her work. The storytelling surrounding her artistic practice is another element of her work, strategically confusing spheres that the traditional art system insists on keeping apart. This conversation with Laure Prouvost took place in April 2022 in separate places. Sonia Fernández Pan was listening to Laure Prouvosts words from the computer and paying attention to the sound of the strokes of a drawing that Laure brought into their meeting. There are many similarities between writing and drawing. Both arise from the body; both produce a physical and intimate relationship between head and hands. The strokes of Laure's drawing added sound textures to her words. To listen to her voice and strokes, come in and enjoy.

When body becomes feeling, the third episode of Feminisms in the Caribbean series, arises from a conversation with the choreographer and performer Marily Gallardo. Teacher in Afro Antillean dance, she is also founder and organiser of Kalalú Danza, Afro Caribbean Cultural Research and Creative Action Lab in Santo Domingo. To Marily Gallardo it is fundamental to recognize the body as the first territory, as the most important place to construct the experience of life. This is because the body is also a denied territory, inhabited by social disciplines, above all for women. Marily Gallardo’s work is a constant affirmation practice of the body, individual, collective and communitarian at the same time.The changeful history of the colonization of the Caribbean has left deep scars that are still present today. This is best known by artists and cultural practitioners who work in their own way on an identity of its own for the Antilles. The term “Caribbean” here is used primarily in a geographical sense to help overcoming local antagonisms between different political systems, languages, and cultures, while allowing artists of all origins to exchange ideas and thus work together on a Caribbean identity.This series of podcasts aims to engage with a plurality of voices from different backgrounds to think with them on the diversity implicit in the notion of identity.

When body becomes feeling, the third episode of Feminisms in the Caribbean series, arises from a conversation with the choreographer and performer Marily Gallardo. Teacher in Afro Antillean dance, she is also founder and organiser of Kalalú Danza, Afro Caribbean Cultural Research and Creative Action Lab in Santo Domingo. To Marily Gallardo it is fundamental to recognize the body as the first territory, as the most important place to construct the experience of life. This is because the body is also a denied territory, inhabited by social disciplines, above all for women. Marily Gallardo’s work is a constant affirmation practice of the body, individual, collective and communitarian at the same time.The changeful history of the colonization of the Caribbean has left deep scars that are still present today. This is best known by artists and cultural practitioners who work in their own way on an identity of its own for the Antilles. The term “Caribbean” here is used primarily in a geographical sense to help overcoming local antagonisms between different political systems, languages, and cultures, while allowing artists of all origins to exchange ideas and thus work together on a Caribbean identity.This series of podcasts aims to engage with a plurality of voices from different backgrounds to think with them on the diversity implicit in the notion of identity.

Feeling Words in your Mouth is the eighth episode that follows a conversation with artist Itziar Okariz. The title for this conversation is a phrase by Itiziar Okariz: "To feel the words on the tongue, to feel the words in the mouth". This statement also connects with another idea of hers: "the voice is the body of words”. Language is felt in a body that feels with language. Itziar Okariz speaks Basque, Spanish and English. There is an intimate relationship between language and identity. We are different depending on the language we use. Itziar's artistic practice is influenced by sculpture, a fundamental practice in the Basque context. Her actions and performances bear witness of how bodies not only take space, but how social space takes our bodies.Okariz's body has many things at hand: music, hair, gesture and repetition, the traditional Basque cry of Irrintzi, echo, breath, yoga, light, language and the disappearance of text... even dreams. Itziar turns her dreams into short paragraphs. She makes us linger over the same sentence, which is never the same sentence. She gives rhythm to her dreams, literally, she turns them into sound matter. Dreams are very intimate experiences in which others are present and absent at the same time. Dreams are similar to art actions: there are people who are part of them without ever being aware of it.

Feeling Words in your Mouth is the eighth episode that follows a conversation with artist Itziar Okariz. The title for this conversation is a phrase by Itiziar Okariz: "To feel the words on the tongue, to feel the words in the mouth". This statement also connects with another idea of hers: "the voice is the body of words”. Language is felt in a body that feels with language. Itziar Okariz speaks Basque, Spanish and English. There is an intimate relationship between language and identity. We are different depending on the language we use. Itziar's artistic practice is influenced by sculpture, a fundamental practice in the Basque context. Her actions and performances bear witness of how bodies not only take space, but how social space takes our bodies.Okariz's body has many things at hand: music, hair, gesture and repetition, the traditional Basque cry of Irrintzi, echo, breath, yoga, light, language and the disappearance of text... even dreams. Itziar turns her dreams into short paragraphs. She makes us linger over the same sentence, which is never the same sentence. She gives rhythm to her dreams, literally, she turns them into sound matter. Dreams are very intimate experiences in which others are present and absent at the same time. Dreams are similar to art actions: there are people who are part of them without ever being aware of it.

Growing horizontally, the seventh episode of the series The Tale and The Tongue, follows a conversation with graphic designer Katharina Hetzeneder. In Barcelona, she began to question the contribution of graphic design to social and political change. Katharina highlights the difference between working collectively and working with collectives; Katharina talkes about the notion of home and the influence of the rural—a reality she knows first-hand—and her relationship with and in urban environments. The conversation with Katharina Hetzeneder took place on 30 December 2021. For many people the year ends by returning to the past, just before they start to flirt with expectations and promises from the recent future. This podcast episode is both, a spell for ending and beginning another year. It is sustained by a desire for conversation, between people but also within collective events larger than individualities.

Growing horizontally, the seventh episode of the series The Tale and The Tongue, follows a conversation with graphic designer Katharina Hetzeneder. In Barcelona, she began to question the contribution of graphic design to social and political change. Katharina highlights the difference between working collectively and working with collectives; Katharina talkes about the notion of home and the influence of the rural—a reality she knows first-hand—and her relationship with and in urban environments. The conversation with Katharina Hetzeneder took place on 30 December 2021. For many people the year ends by returning to the past, just before they start to flirt with expectations and promises from the recent future. This podcast episode is both, a spell for ending and beginning another year. It is sustained by a desire for conversation, between people but also within collective events larger than individualities.

Joy is a contribution by writer, curator and educator Barbara Casavecchia. In this episode, she speaks about artist Alex Martinis Roe’s research into a genealogy of feminist political practice and her video A story from Circolo della Rosa (2014). Thereby she includes excerpts from Becoming Public Among Ourselves (2018), her own text on the artist’s work. The Episode is part of the series Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care, a collection of episodes emerged from the Master Symposium held in spring 2021 at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. The contributions to the symposium were devoted to ideas and forms of artistic research that center art as a practice in service of the social. They revisit certain moments in our recent history and present of researching, producing, and exhibiting art in the name of such beliefs, namely social justice.

Joy is a contribution by writer, curator and educator Barbara Casavecchia. In this episode, she speaks about artist Alex Martinis Roe’s research into a genealogy of feminist political practice and her video A story from Circolo della Rosa (2014). Thereby she includes excerpts from Becoming Public Among Ourselves (2018), her own text on the artist’s work. The Episode is part of the series Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care, a collection of episodes emerged from the Master Symposium held in spring 2021 at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. The contributions to the symposium were devoted to ideas and forms of artistic research that center art as a practice in service of the social. They revisit certain moments in our recent history and present of researching, producing, and exhibiting art in the name of such beliefs, namely social justice.

Worldmaking is based on a talk by Maria Lind, a curator, writer and educator from Stockholm, currently serving as a counsellor of culture at the embassy of Sweden in Moscow. In her contribution she states out the unique force of Marion von Osten when it comes to cultural production including curating. Via the photo-based collage work The Glass of Petrol by artist Agnieszka Polska, Maria Lind talks about the macro- and microlevel of climate change and the agency of art in relation to a revitalized and accelerated understanding of the art’s own relevance and its imaginative and projective qualities.The episode Worldmaking is part of the series Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care, a collection of podcast episodes emerged from the Master Symposium held in spring 2021 at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. The contributions to the symposium were devoted to ideas and forms of artistic research that center art as a practice in service of the social. They revisit certain moments in our recent history and present of researching, producing, and exhibiting art in the name of such beliefs, namely social justice.

Worldmaking is based on a talk by Maria Lind, a curator, writer and educator from Stockholm, currently serving as a counsellor of culture at the embassy of Sweden in Moscow. In her contribution she states out the unique force of Marion von Osten when it comes to cultural production including curating. Via the photo-based collage work The Glass of Petrol by artist Agnieszka Polska, Maria Lind talks about the macro- and microlevel of climate change and the agency of art in relation to a revitalized and accelerated understanding of the art’s own relevance and its imaginative and projective qualities.The episode Worldmaking is part of the series Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care, a collection of podcast episodes emerged from the Master Symposium held in spring 2021 at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. The contributions to the symposium were devoted to ideas and forms of artistic research that center art as a practice in service of the social. They revisit certain moments in our recent history and present of researching, producing, and exhibiting art in the name of such beliefs, namely social justice.

Curiosity features writer, curator and lecturer at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW Filipa Ramos. Filipa Ramos is interested in how art engages with ecology and fosters relationships between humans, non-humans and machines. In this episode, as a memento to Marion von Osten whose engagement, curiosity and energy generated communities of people and things that resonated with one another in unexpected ways, Filipa Ramos shares the story of Jeanne Villepreux-Power, a naturalist who invented in 1832 the first recognizable glass aquarium to aid her observations. The episode Curiosity is part of the series Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care, a collection of podcast episodes emerged from the Master Symposium held in spring 2021 at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. The contributions to the symposium were devoted to ideas and forms of artistic research that center art as a practice in service of the social. They revisit certain moments in our recent history and present of researching, producing, and exhibiting art in the name of such beliefs, namely social justice.

In the episode Care the antwerp-based multidisciplinary artist Otobong Nkanga, focuses on the irrelation between environment, architecture and history. She uses the notion of land as a geological and discursive formation, often taking as her starting point the systems and procedures by which raw materials are locally dug up, technologically processed and globally circulated. From there she follows the threads that intertwine ores, material culture and the construction of desire with the redistribution of power and knowledge.The episode Care is part of the series Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care, a collection of podcast episodes emerged from the Master Symposium held in spring 2021 at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. The contributions to the symposium were devoted to ideas and forms of artistic research that center art as a practice in service of the social. They revisit certain moments in our recent history and present of researching, producing, and exhibiting art in the name of such beliefs, namely social justice.

In the episode Care the antwerp-based multidisciplinary artist Otobong Nkanga, focuses on the irrelation between environment, architecture and history. She uses the notion of land as a geological and discursive formation, often taking as her starting point the systems and procedures by which raw materials are locally dug up, technologically processed and globally circulated. From there she follows the threads that intertwine ores, material culture and the construction of desire with the redistribution of power and knowledge.The episode Care is part of the series Going to the Limits of Your Longing, Research as Another Name for Care, a collection of podcast episodes emerged from the Master Symposium held in spring 2021 at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. The contributions to the symposium were devoted to ideas and forms of artistic research that center art as a practice in service of the social. They revisit certain moments in our recent history and present of researching, producing, and exhibiting art in the name of such beliefs, namely social justice.