This subproject starts from the observation that ecocritical approaches in the arts are increasingly intersecting with perspectives from decolonial ecology. It focuses on the entanglements of (neo-)colonialism, resource extraction, biodiversity loss, and environmental justice. The project investigates how artistic practices intervene in Western-centred epistemic orders by imagining and rendering perceptible non-hegemonic ways of being in the world as well as forms of conviviality across species. It focuses on artistic works that foreground relational ontologies and open up multiperspectival approaches to ecological crises. In doing so, these works cultivate a sensibility for more-than-human entanglements while challenging dominant human–nature narratives that reify nature and legitimize extractive practices. They also draw on epistemic and aesthetic traditions that have been marginalized through (settler) colonial power relations. SP 1 examines artistic practices that move beyond dystopian narratives and (post-)colonial regimes of exploitation to envision relational and emancipatory ecologies, with a regional focus on Nigeria and Morocco. SP 2 investigates, from the perspectives of art history and media studies, how world-making practices in Extended Realities created by Indigenous media producers articulate alternative conceptions of digital space. SP 3 examines design interventions in museums and cultural institutions at the intersection of design and art.

Head of Project

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Pinther (SP 1)