In order to do so, Contemporary Matters is turning toward contemporary cultural
and activist practices that steadily make biodiversity a subject of discussion. Merging approaches from life sciences and
cultural studies through the deconstruction of the binary opposition Nature/Culture equals embracing the complex and large-scale
hybridity of biodiversity. For this symposium Contemporary Matters invites researchers, scholars, artists, activists, and
politicians to come together on a public forum at the University of Vienna and discuss new approaches for human and non-human
co-existence.
Contemporary Matters is a student-initiated platform launched in 2018 raising critical awareness
on the role of “the contemporary” in the increasingly transdisciplinary field of art history. Contemporary Matters believes
that biodiversity constitutes a multifaceted challenge on a global scale. The endangerment thereof impacts all classes, groups,
professions and nations, thus highlighting the entanglement of human and non-human agents in our contemporary world and the
necessity to put these various affected actors in conversation with each other. In fact, by facilitating an exchange between
rather uncustomary combinations of perspectives on the subject of biodiversity, we can perform (bio-)diversity in the very
structure of the conference.
With contributions by Ingeborg Reichle (University of Applied Arts) | Extinction
Rebellion Austria | Roswitha Schuller (University of Applied Arts) | Tahani Nadim & Sybille Neumeyer (Humboldt University
Berlin) | Maria Huhmarniemi (University of Lapland) | Alice Vadrot (University of Vienna) | Yulia Kopr (University of Vienna)
| Brishty Alam (University of Applied Arts)
Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 10am to 8pm
Aula am Campus
der Universität Wien (Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 1.11, 1090 Vienna)
https://contemporarymatters.org