Exploring the Earth as Lover: New Approaches to Environmental Art, Theory & Activism
31. 7. – 12. 8. 23
We aim to create a gathering of artists, academics, sex workers, sexologists, healers, environmental activists, media makers, activists, hydrofeminists, educators, (r)evolutionaries, critters and other entities to celebrate, proclaim, challenge, debate, perform, make rituals and delight our senses. Whether you are country folk, city folk, punk, queer, hetero, trans, historian, pagan, scientist, stargazer, skinny dipper, or other worldly being, you are welcome!
Participants will be offered opportunities to explore how imagining the Earth as a lover can shape our lives, our work, bring pleasure and joy, and deepen our relationship with our ecosystem. Students can create new work, share it, and get feedback. We will support each other in pollinating the work around the world to museums, galleries, media, protests and gatherings. We’ll collaborate with nature.
The week will begin with sharing our collective experiences and interests. There will be a daily walk as art, and we'll interact with nature through our senses; smelling, touching, tasting, seeing and hearing. There will be shared meals, film screenings, assignments, performances, and a ritual co-created by the group. By the end of the two weeks, students will have a deeper, more empathetic relationship with the Earth. Students will develop the “ecosexual gaze” and become familiar with the field of environmental art and related theory. Serious environmental concerns will be fuel for our fires. Humour will be encouraged.
key data
- Venue
- Festung Hohensalzburg
- Date
- 31. 7. – 12. 8. 23
Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle
Beth Stephens (filmmaker, artist, and professor in the Art Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz) and Annie Sprinkle (internationally known multi-media artist, and one of the pivotal players in the 80s “sex positive feminist movement) have collaborated since 2002. They are founders of the “ecosex movement”, where they aim to make the environmental movement more sexy, fun and diverse through film, art, performance and writing. They were official documenta 14 artists (2016-17) where they premièred their film Water Makes Us Wet, had a visual art exhibit, and performed several Ecosex Walking Tours. They were named 2019 Eureka Fellows. You can watch their collaborative work on loveartlab.org, sexecology.org and their solo works in elizabethstephens.org and anniesprinkle.org. Their book Assuming the Ecosexual Position: Earth as Lover is available from the University of Minnesota Press.
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