LIVE ON EARTH!
Ecofeminism and Art: a Planetary Symposium
Los Angeles - The Hague - Seoul

March 21st, 2025 — 24 hours around the world

1. Alternative Space LOOP - Seoul, Korea: 11 am-7 pm KST
With: Minja Gu with Lusi Sapitri, ha cha youn, Hyunjoo Kim, Jason Kim, Hyunjung Lee, Mary Mellor, Ye-eun Min, and Natasha Tontey, and others
2. West Den Haag - The Hague, The Netherlands 12 am-8 pm CET
With: Ursula Biemann, Isabel Cavalho, Chihiro Geuzebroek, Ruth Nyambura, Eliana N'Zualo/ WoMin, Philsan Omar Osman, anna andrejew, Irene Jahn, Karolina Rupp, Go Eun Im, Veronica Perales, Katerina Sidorova, Müge Yilmaz, Yvette Teeuwen, MaYa and others
3. The BRICK/ArtCenter - Los Angeles, California: 11 am-7 pm PST
With: Jane Chin Davidson, Martina Manterola and Carmen Sera of colectivo amasijo, Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodriguez, Janet Sarbanes, Leslie Labowitz Starus, Leah Thomas, and more to be announced

€ 15,00 / 5,00 (regular/student) – 1 day (incl. lunch)
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Introduction
Ecofeminism is a transnational movement that locates critical connections between gender oppression and the exploitation of natural resources. For over four decades, ecofeminist theorists, activists, and artists have drawn on their experiences, analysis, observations, and actions to address structural injustice and existential threats in an age of accelerating techno-industrial development. This symposium brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of thinkers and makers approaching systemic social and ecological justice concerns through the lens of art practice, art criticism, and art history. It is centered on the experience of feminists of all gender identities, and will address a wide range of topics such as historical and new materialism, anti-colonialism, afrofuturism, food sovereignty, and queer ecology, among many others. Challenging patriarchal and anthropocentric narratives, this series of discussions, presentation, performances, and screenings will help us ‘stay with the trouble’ as together we navigate the meshwork of social, human, and non-human relations.

After a successful launch at The Brick in Los Angeles, the exhibition Life on Earth: Art & Ecofeminism moved across the Atlantic and is now staged at West Den Haag in The Hague, February 28 till July 27 2025. This symposium is part of the public programming attached to the exhibition, offering a global, digital and in-person event that will connect three dynamic centers of ecofeminist art and action. Following the sun around the Earth, the symposium will be staged over a 24-hour span, in three 8-hour sessions; it will begin on March 21th, 2025 at Alternative Space LOOP in Seoul, South Korea, then continue at West Den Haag in The Hague, the Netherlands, and finish up with The Brick at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. This one-day event convenes scholars, artists, activists, scientists and cultural workers of various kinds exploring what artists and arts institutions do to support ecofeminist commitments, elaborating and testing the limits of institutions and the imperatives of social and political agency. Free and open to all audiences, this event will connect different localities contending with the contradictions and tensions between local experience and normative concepts, between local conditions and global climate models, between local advocacy and international solidarity.


Introduction The Hague
West Den Haag - The Hague, The Netherlands: 12 am-8 pm CET

With: Ursula Biemann, Isabel Cavalho, Chihiro Geuzebroek, Ruth Nyambura, Eliana N'Zualo/ WoMin, Philsan Omar Osman, anna andrejew, Irene Jahn, Karolina Rupp, Go Eun Im, Veronica Perales, Katerina Sidorova, Müge Yilmaz, Yvette Teeuwen, MaYa and others

Ecofeminists study how through patriarchy, women become considered a natural resource. Maria Mies tells us that men first developed weapons to subordinate women, it took orders of magnitude of violence to maintain patriarchy which continues to this day. Ecofeminists see the violence against women as part of the systemic despoiling of the biosphere. It has long become clear that the fates of women around the world are shared, and to protect the biosphere that sustains us all, we must find ways to come together, building solidarity across divisions.

Today, the collapse of bourgeois democracy in the Global North has caused a backlash towards both feminism and environmentalism. It’s never been more essential to bring the two movements together in global solidarity. In the context of the exhibition ‘Life On Earth’ this second section of the symposium at West Den Haag brings together radical practitioners to discuss what is at stake today for ecofeminism, and how to build networks and share practices. Our presenters engage with the legacies of colonialism, migration and racism that transfuse eco-feminist concerns and actions, with a particular focus on cultivating North-South solidarity. Connecting artistic and activist approaches, traversing conventional disciplinary boundaries. Ruth Nyambura will join our symposium to give us an eco-socialist Pan-African analysis of the challenges facing women organizers in several African countries. Philsan Omar Osman will hold an intensive workshop on anti-racist ecofeminism and Black geographies. Chihiro Guezebroek will give a transdisciplinary report on her work with indigenous women in South America.

Ecofeminism must balance local and universal approaches. While rooted in diverse lived experiences, it requires international solidarity to address global systemic issues. Local contributions include an ecofeminist council, on hand to raise questions, comment, and spur discussions throughout the day, performances by Yvette Teeuwen and MaYa explore embodied thinking and situated knowledge. Panels, screenings, workshops and other activities to encourage exchange and support organization and solidarity. Meeting with artists like Ursula Biemann, we will explore how ecofeminist commitments can be supported in contemporary art. The program, convened and moderated by Baruch Gottlieb will consist of in-person and hybrid activities, some of which will be streamed, and some which will be available only for on site participants.