Multispecies Landscape

Multispecies Landscape is a two-year artistic research on alternative ways of practicing relationships with the environment and diverse bodies that are part of the ecosystems in which we operate and are being transformed. It understands the environment as the process that emerges from numerous relationships and tries to look for methods for overcoming binary oppositions such as nature and culture, dead and alive, etc.

The research inspired by the concept of the holobiont as an object of thought that disables thinking through individual categories, but rather focuses on the body as a porous environment of various organisms that are enabling life. Another important pillar of research is inspired by Astrida Neimanis’ and Rachel Loewen Walker’s thought that “How we live in the world is contingent upon how we imagine that world to be.” Therefore, one of the main questions is how to imagine the world differently.

The first year consists of 4 chapters that turn with the seasons change. On March 20, the Ljubljana’s Old Power Station we hosted the opening of the first chapter, which was focused on observation as the central method for reconceptualising the relationship with the environment.

»We have lost the habit of noticing through our own observations of the world in addition to conversations with human interlocutors (Mathews 2018). The Anthropocene is a wakeup call urging us to reinvent observational, analytical attention to intertwined human-and-nonhuman histories.« (Tsing, A. L., Mathews, A. S., & Bubandt, N. (2019). Patchy Anthropocene: Landscape Structure, Multispecies History, and the Retooling of Anthropology: An Introduction to Supplement 20, S188)

Additional information

Premieres:

The first chapter:
OBSERVATION, Opening of the installation and launch of the Reading the Landscape portal, March 20th 2022, Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana

The second chapter:
IMAGINATION , Dreaming the landscape, a two day online workshop with Mala Kline, June 21st and 22nd 2022

The third chapter:
TO HOST THE LANDSCAPE, performative walk, 23rd September 2022

The fourth chapter:
A DINNER OF LIQUID TALES, 21st December 2022

Upcoming performances:

  • Past performances:
    March 14th to 17th 2024, If Trees Would Cry, We Would Cry, Too, sound walk, Trigger, Ljubljana
  • June 29th 2023, To Host the Ladnscape, Toynbee Studios, Artsadmin, London
  • March 18th 2023, The fourth chapter: A Dinner of Liquid Tales, Kibla – Brezodra festival

credits

  • Author: Tery Žeželj
  • Producer: Maja Vižin
  • Production: Bunker, Ljubljana

Supported by: Ministrstvo za kulturo, Mestna občina Ljubljana, Evropska skupnost – program Ustvarjalna Evropa, Kultura, ACT – Art, Climate, Transition

Photo: Nada Žgank

AUTHOR TERY ŽEŽELj

Tery Žeželj is a dramaturg and artistic researcher. In January 2022 at the Bunker Institute, she began with a two year research Multispecies Landscapes on the possibilities for reconceptualizing the relationship with the environment which focuses on the multiplicity and diversity of entangled and interdependent bodies that co-shape landscapes.

She holds a BA in Dramaturgy and Contemporary Performing Arts from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana, and a Master’s degree in Contemporary Theatre, Dance, and Dramaturgy from the University of Utrecht. She finished the program with a MA thesis More-Than-Human Practices: Feminist Environmental Potentials of Working with More-Than-Humans. During her studies, she worked with the archive of performances at Framer Framed in Amsterdam, proposed a curated program of performances for Framer Framed, and worked as a dramaturgy intern in the creative process of How to Exit Reality (Attempt 1 of 19) by Andrea Božić and Julia Willms.
During their residency at Het Huis Utrecht, she, together with Madison Joliffe initiated a longer practice-based research the day after yesterday.
Since 2019, she has been working as the editor of the theatre programme at the Glej Theatre. She currently navigates through a variety of roles and relationships: as a researcher, writer, editor, as well as a dramaturgical and production ally in the process with choreographer and curator Ainhoa Hernández Escudero.