What does it mean to be an artist-activist, to align and connect the personal–political–aesthetic? How can we understand or re-interpret our world as nature, instead of nature disconnected from the world? And is soil sacred? Join artist Jasper Griepink, eco-warrior & academic-activist Victoria McKenzie and interdependent writer & researcher Georgia Kareola on Thursday 26 May to redefine our relationships with nature and with soil, fusing elements of science, the sacred, context and playful fun in a meandering temple-talk.

During the informal talk, the artists will engage in a discussion through the soils amidst the mystical EARTHSHRINE. Weaving and moving through their personal practices, Griepink & McKenzie discuss how the personal, political and aesthetic align; how the speculative future of the soil demands a reinterpretation of it outside of techno-agricultural production. And how a reawakening of the Earth’s connectivity is the recognition of all its relations—of human, more-than-human and spirit.

The night will kick off with interdependent writer & researcher Georgia Kareola who will share her research on soil in the context of EARTHSHRINE. Kareola: "In the light of the current soil crisis induced by capitalist practices of extraction, it is urgent we envision and embody new ways of engaging with soil, a complex living and spiritual system." In their upcoming essay, Kareola will contextualise the exhibition EARTHSHRINE and its eco-fictional proposition of Sensing Sacred Soils, in the light of current critical theory on soil ecologies and new materialism. With the insights gathered during the evening, the dialogue between McKenzie and Griepink and input from the audience, the enthralling text will be completed and published at mu.nl

Join live at MU, or tune in online for the live-streaming.

** This event is an introduction to Victoria McKenzie and Jasper Griepink, who will perform a fungal earth blessing on Sunday 29 May at MU **