Body, Territory and Conflict

Study Group

23 October 2020 – 12 March 2021
Place
Online platform
Admission:

Registration closed (capacity: 25 people)

Sessions:

23 October, 27 November, 18 December 2020, and 15 January, 12 February and 12 March 2021

Time:

from 4pm to 7pm

Organised by:

Museo Reina Sofía

Coordinated by:

Fernando Quesada

Force lines:

Action and Radical Imagination, Contemporary Disturbances

Education programme developed with the sponsorship of the Banco Santander Foundation

Michael Maier. Nutrix eius terra est, emblem No. 2 from his book Atalanta Fugiens, 1617
Michael Maier. Nutrix eius terra est, emblem No. 2 from his book Atalanta Fugiens, 1617

Over the course of six encounters, the study group Body, Territory and Conflict seeks to develop a space of action and thought focused on the critique of the so-called Anthropocene, a geological era defined by growing and destructive human intervention on the planet. In considering extractivist capitalism as a reality situated at the crossroads of the body and the environment and trusting the critical potential of live arts and architecture, these sessions will address, transversally, the impact of anthropocentric logics on the structural inequality of territories and resources. The themes touched upon here include: the collapse of civilisation, environmental justice, collective memory, different forms of absence that persist in the landscape, ecology, artistic practices in nature, pre-modern hybrid corporalities, acoustic geography and, finally, the cancellation of the future in the Anthropocene.

The work sessions will combine two formats — a reading group and a workshop as a practical laboratory — and set out to encourage the deployment of bibliographic materials submitted by artists and researchers acting as guest mediators: Rosa Casado, Ramón del Castillo, Óscar Cornago, Diana Delgado-Ureña, Uriel Fogué, Victoria Pérez Royo, Rafael Tormo i Cuenca, Jaime Vallaure and Óscar Villegas.

The coordination of the study group will be run by Fernando Quesada, a member of the ARTEA collective, and its thematic programme is linked to the research project The New Loss of Centre. Critical Practices of Live Arts and Architecture in the Anthropocene, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

 

Fernando Quesada is an architect and head lecturer in Architectural Projects at the University of Alcalá de Henares. He has also been part of the research-creation group ARTEA since its inception. His research work focuses on two major fields: the theory and history of modern and contemporary architecture, and its relationship with stage arts and performance, and the main lines of work in this critical framework are the body, biopolitics, spatiality and social theatricality. Furthermore, he has been a long-term guest lecturer on three occasions: at Delft University of Technology (2009–2010), at Museo Universitario MUAC from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México UNAM (2013), and the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania (2019).  

He is author of the books La caja mágica. Cuerpo y escena (Fundación Caja de Arquitectos, 2005), Del cuerpo a la red. Cuatro ensayos sobre la descorporeización del espacio (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2013) and Arquitecturas del devenir. Aproximaciones a la performatividad del espacio (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2014), and editor of Cairon 12. Cuerpo y arquitectura (Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, 2009), Comunidad. Común. Comuna (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2015), Ser Público. Ficciones arquitectónicas para Madrid (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2017) and Tecnopastoralismo. Ensayos y proyectos en torno a la Arcadia tecnificada (Ediciones Asimétricas, 2020). He is currently putting together the book Mobile Theater. Architectural Counterculture on Stage, with Actar Publishers.  


Programa:

Painted into a Corner
Friday, 16 October 2020
Session moderated by Diana Delgado-Ureña and Jaime Vallaure

Landscapes and Gardens
Friday, 27 November 2020
Session moderated by Óscar Cornago and Rafael Tormo i Cuenca

Nature, Ecology and Artistic Practices
Friday, 18 December 2020
Session moderated by Ramón del Castillo

Old Bodies, New Politics
Friday, 15 January 2021
Session moderated by Victoria Pérez Royo

A Map on the End of the World
Friday, 12 February 2021
Session moderated by Uriel Fogué

Quiet, Too Quiet but not Silent 
Friday, 12 March 2021
Session moderated by Rosa Casado and Óscar Villegas


Education programme developed with the sponsorship of the  Santander Fundación