At
the Table - Narratives on the Technological, the Imagined, and the
Dead Body
A dialogue installation in 5 acts
by Mobile Academy Berlin as part of the Episodes of the South by
the Goethe-Institut.
The project assembles narratives
of the ongoing conglomeration between bodies and implantations,
between humans and devices, of the interfaces between the human
body with artefacts and different technologies.
Technological modifications to and transformations of the body
seem sensible and legitimate whenever they have a therapeutic or
socially integrative character, for example a cardiac pacemaker,
a set of dentures, or a leg prosthesis. Nevertheless, the question
inevitably arises as to where the boundary needs to be drawn regarding
this self-reshaping. At what point should the problems of resources
and social justice take priority over the right to self-optimization?
Does – ultimately – the desire for self-transformation
correspond to the logic of a global ideology of growth that fantasizes
itself into an intricately networked, neoliberal, appallingly unjust,
militarized future? Or can we imagine fantastic techno-bodies, cyborgs,
which propagate recognition of difference and are able to coalesce
machines, the organic, desire, and the imagination?
Experts from different disciplines take a seat at the table and
tell of the transformative potential – through technology
and fictions – of our bodies. We begin with the dead, the
bodies forgotten and unidentifiable, in which our future lies buried.
This is followed by dialogues on bodies with disabilities which
challenge our technological and social possibilities. And we end
with the desires for and the imagining of bodies that are on the
threshold of something different, a nascent form of existence that
potentially fuses with other humans, animals, gods, and machines.
Take a seat at the table. Or take part in the image karaoke and
let us interpret those inexplicable images of bodies together.
Episodes of the South is a project initiated by the Goethe-Institut
in cooperation with Sesc which reflects metaphoric, cultural, social,
historic and political dimensions of the so called 'South'.
***

all Photos: Camila Picolo


Dialogues
15:00
The narration of the bones: The body as a mnemonic device
Dialogue : Clara Ianni & Luiz Fontes
16:15
The 2006 Disability Act and the 2010 Anti-Inclusion Manifesto
- How the right to imperfection is challenging society
Dialogue: Estela Lapponi & Marta Almeida Gil
17:30
Deep Brain Stimulation I: Neural prostheses for Parkinson’s
disease
Dialogue: Erich Fonoff & Victor Rosetto Barboza
18:30
Deep Brain Stimulation II: Neural prostheses for depression
Dialogue: Christian Dunker & Erich Fonoff
19:30
Shamanism as a Technology of the Body: How to approach virtual worlds,
information, and inter-species relationship
Dialogue: Fabiane M. Borges & Laymert Garcia dos Santos
20:45 Current speculations and anticipations on a future
body
Dialogue: Amara Moira & Jean Wyllys & Laerte Coutinho
Every dialogue is followed by a 20 minute discussion with the following
hecklers and guests: Max Hinderer Jorge Cruz, Rodrigo Maltez Novaes,
Benjamin Serroussi, Marcia Tiburi, and Rita Wu.
Dialogues and discussion in Portuguese with simultaneous translation
into English. Free entrance
***

all Photos: Camila Picolo

Protagonists
Amara Moira is a writer, transgender prostitute
and activist. She is currently acquiring her PhD in Theory of Literature
at the University of Campinas. She is the author of the blog What
if I was a prostitute in which she writes about her experiences
as a prostitute in the city of São Paulo and raises questions
related to transfobia and prostitution.
Born in Paris, France, Benjamin Seroussi now lives
in São Paulo, Brazil and works as a curator, editor and cultural
manager. He is currently the director of Casa do Povo and curator
at Vila Itororó. Both projects consist in developing cultural
institutions based on collective management techniques, in a close
dialogue with their respective surroundings and wider urban issues,
aiming to reach local and international relevance. Seroussi holds
a Masters in Sociology (Ecole Normale Supérieure and Ecole
de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), and a Masters in Cultural
Management (Sciences-Po). He was deputy director at Centro da Cultura
Judaica [Jewish Cultural Center], São Paulo, from 2009 to
2012; associate curator at the 31st Biennial of São Paulo
How To (...) Things That Don't Exist, in 2014; and lectures regularly
on curating and cultural management.
Christian Ingo Lenz Dunker is a psychoanalyst
and professor at the Department of Clinical Psychology of the Psychology
Institute at the University of São Paulo (USP). He completed
his habilitation thesis in Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis (Department
of Clinical Psychology, 2011) and his postdoctoral training at the
Manchester Metropolitan University. He is an Analyst Member of the
School (A.M.E.) of the Lacanian Field Forum. He coordinates the
Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Social Theory Interunit Lab at USP
(LATESFIP), he is the author of “Mal-Estar, Sofrimento e Sintoma”
(Boitempo, 2015), “The Constitution of the Psychoanalytic
Clinic - a history of its structure ad power” (London: Karnac,
2010), “O Cálculo Neurótico do Gozo” (Escuta,
20002), and “Lacan e a Clínica da Interpretação”
(Hacker, 1996). Columnist and regular contributor for several newspapers
and magazines, he conducts research on clinical psychoanalysis of
Lacanian orientation, and its relations with Language Sciences and
Philosophy.
Clara Ianni has completed a BFA in Visual Arts
at the University of São Paulo and an MA in Visual and Media
Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin, with a DAAD scholarship.
Clara has worked as assistant of the curator Regis Michel, at the
Louvre Museum, and as assistant in the 7th Berlin Biennale, curated
by Artur Zmijewski, together with Joanna Warsza, and Voina. She
is also a member and contributor of Krytyka Polityczna. Her work
is based on the use of several media such as video, installation,
intervention, sculpture and texts and her research focuses on the
relationship between art and politics, exploring its ideological
implications.
Erich Fonoff studied medicine at the Medical School
of the University of São Paulo and later did his medical
residency in Neurosurgery at the Hospital das Clinicas, FMUSP, specializing
in the Division of Functional Neurosurgery at the Hospital das Clinicas,
FMUSP (2004-2006). Fonoff holds a PhD from the Department of Neurology
FMUSP, and acquired a Full-Professor chair at the same University
with research on Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) as treatment for Parkinson’s
Disease. His current work is based on functional neurosurgical treatment
for neuropsychiatric diseases and the anatomical and physiological
mapping of the nervous system.
Estela Lapponi is a São Paulo-based artist
who creates authorial works in contemporary dance, performance,
and visual arts. In 1992 she started in the field of the Performing
Arts as a stage actress, in 2004, as a videographer, and in 2005,
as a dancer. Since 2009, she has investigated artistically and conceptually
the terminology she created while living in the region of Marche,
Italy – “Corpointruso” -, in which she advocates
taking a different stance regarding everything that is outside normalizing
standards. From this term she has developed a series of performances
which she has presented in several Brazilian states as well as in
different countries. http://zuleikabrit.blogspot.com.br/. She is
the creator of the program Second Performance, held in partnership
with the Palace Carmelita. http://www.casadezuleika.com/. In 2010,
she wrote the Manifesto ANTI-Inclusion.
Fabiane M. Borges who has a PhD in clinical psychology
is also an essayist and an artist. Her research focuses on Space-art,
art and technology, shamanism, performance , and subjectivity. She
is one of the articulators of the technoshamanism network and Technoshamanism
Festival. Connecting traditional cultures with DIY (do it yourself)
culture is one of her biggest interest at the moment. Using her
practical and theoretical experience she has worked with indigenous
communities, patients from psychiatric clinics, sex professionals,
women newly out of prison, homeless, beggars, and the landless whose
borders lines and fights create the political and social consistence
of her work. Fabiane has writen a book titled Domínios do
Demasiado (Realm of Excess), Ed. Hucitec/2010, and Breviário
de Pornografia Esquizotrans (Porn Esquizotrans Breviary), Ex. Libris
2010, and is now organizing two more, one about Space-art, and the
other on Technoshamanism. http://catahistorias.wordpress.com.
Jean Wyllys is a lecturer, journalist, and a politician
who has an MA in Linguistics from the Federal University of Bahia.
He was a professor of Brazilian Culture and Communication Theory
at the Faculty ESPM (Rio de Janeiro). Wyllys rose to fame after
winning the fifth season of Big Brother Brazil. He was the first
openly gay participant in the show, which caused a lot of controversy
amongst fans and participants alike. He is also notable as Brazil's
second openly gay member of the parliament. In 2010, he was elected
federal MP representative of the Socialist and Freedom Party, and
is currently a member of the Parliamentary Front in Defense of LGBT
rights.
Laerte Coutinho is a recognized and respected
cartoonist and caricaturist, who has collaborated with several publications
such as Balão, O Pasquim, and Chiclete com Banana magazines,
and draws regularly for Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. She has created
several comic strip characters, such as Piratas do Tietê (The
Pirates of Tietê River). Laerte was part of the Brazilian
underground comics scene of the 1980s, together with Angeli and
Glauco (and later Adão Iturrusgarai), with whom she drew
the collaborative comic strip Los Três Amigos. She regularly
releases albums with collections of her strips, mainly published
by Devir Livraria and L&PM Pocket. At age 57 she started gender
transitioning thus opening a profound discussion about gender identity
in Brazil. She is currently the co-founder of the institution ABRAT
(Brazilian Association of Transgender).
Laymert Garcia dos Santos is an essayist and university
lecturer in the field of sociology and technology at the Campinas
University, UNICAMP, São Paulo. He has lived in Paris in
the 1970s and gained a PhD in information technology at the University
of Paris Diderot, and between 1992 and 1993 he has been Visiting
Professor at the St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University.
He has published on the topics of art culture and technology, and
has written a number of books, among which are “Tempo de Ensaio”
(Essay Time) and “Politizar as Novas Tecnologias: o impacto
so´cio-te´cnico da informac¸a~o digital e gene´tica”
(Politicising New Technologies-The Social and Technical Impact of
Digital and Genetic Information). He organized Druchsache N.F.6.,
a German- Portuguese volume on Heiner Müller for the International
Heiner Müller Gesellschaft and Richter Verlag in 2001, and
published several essays on contemporary art for magazines such
as Parachute, Zehar, Via Regia, aut aut, as well as for many catalogues.
Luiz Roberto de Oliveira Fontes is both a doctor
of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Forensic Anthropology. As a forensic
anthropologist his interest lies in diagnosing the cause and the
approximate time of death, and the human identification in cases
that are hard to solve by conventional methods.
Marcia Tiburi studied philosophy and visual arts.
She holds a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of Rio Grande
do Sul and a PhD in Philosophy from the same University. She has
published many books on philosophy, biopolitics, aesthetics and
ethics. Amongst them are As Mulheres e a Filosofia [Women and Philosophy]
(Ed. Unisinos, 2002), Filosofia Cinza – a melancolia e o corpo
nas dobras da escrita [Grey Philosophy – melancholy and the
body in the foldings of writing] (Escritos, 2004); Mulheres, Filosofia
ou Coisas do Gênero [Women, Philosophy or Gender Issues](EDUNISC,
2008), and also fictions such as Magnólia (2005), A Mulher
de Costas (2006), O Manto (2009), and Era meu esse Rosto (Record,
2012). She was one of the hostesses of Saia Justa, exhibited at
GNT television channel, a program aimed to discuss questions about
and relating to women. She is a professor at the Post-Graduation
Program in Education, Art and History of Culture at the Mackenzie
University of Sao Paulo.
Marta Almeida Gil is a sociologist who since 1976
has been working to create wider visibility and provide information
about and for persons with disabilities. In the 1990s she has set
up the Saci network of information (www.saci.org.br) for and about
persons with varying types of disabilities. Her aim is to develop
the knowledge necessary to understand the extent and nature of the
handicaps which affect so many of Brazil's citizens - knowledge
important both to form inclusive public policies and, hopefully,
to challenge long-standing attitudes towards people with a disability.
Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz works as a writer, editor,
cultural theorist, and curator, specializing in aesthetics, political
philosophy, colonial economy, psychoactive substances, and Brazilian
20th century art. From 2008-2011 he was curator of the exhibition
and publication project "Principio Potosí / The Potosí
Principle" (together with Alice Creischer and Andreas Siekmann),
presented at Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Haus der Kulturen der
Welt Berlin, and Museo Nacional de Arte / MUSEF in La Paz. Recent
projects include the edition and translation of Hélio Oiticica's
writings, published as the exhibition catalogue "Hélio
Oiticica. Das große Labyrinth / The Great Labyrinth",
co-edited with Susanne Gaensheimer, Peter Gorschlüter and Cesar
Oiticica Filho (Hatje Cantz / MMK Museum of Modern Art Frankfurt
2013); and the essay collection "Art and the Critique of Ideology
After 1989?, co-edited with Eva Birkenstock, Jens Kastner and Ruth
Sonderegger (Walther Koenig Books / Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2014). Since
2014, together with Suely Rolnik, Amilcar Packer and Pedro Cesarino,
he has been the program coordinator of P.A.C.A. (Program for Autonomous
Cultural Action São Paulo).
Rita Wu is an artist, designer and programmer
who studied Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São
Paulo (USP). She is a researcher in the DeVIR group (Design, Environments,
and Interface) and DIGIFAB-USP (Group of Research into Digital Fabrication),
both at USP. Rita also participates in the Lab of Social Theory,
Philosophy and Psychoanalysis at the Institute of Psychology of
USP and the Faculty of Philosophy, Language and Literature, and
Human Sciences. She is currently researching technology and sexuality
on how technology can improve/change human relations and the way
people relate to sex. She runs a group on facebook called TECHNOPORN
where she frequently posts on the theme. In her works she explores
the relation among body, space, and technology, investigating the
expansion that technology can bring to our space perception through
wearable interfaces.
Rodrigo Maltez Novaes is a visual artist designer,
translator, and editor. He is the translator and editor of the first
English editions of several titles by Vilém Flusser, and
after five years as a Resident Research Fellow at the Vilém
Flusser Archive at the University of the Arts, Berlin, he now heads
the long-term project for the translation and publication of Flusser's
work from Brazilian-Portuguese into English, to be published with
Univocal Publishing, USA, and Metaflux Publishing, UK. With a BA
from the University of Gloucestershire and an MA from the University
of the Arts in London, his main areas of activity are painting,
philosophy, media, and communication. Rodrigo is currently a doctoral
candidate at the European Graduate School and the director of Metaflux
Publishing.
Victor Rossetto Barboza graduated in medicine
and neurosurgery from Santa Casa de São Paulo. Then, he began
a one-year medical residency in functional neurosurgery at Hospital
das Clínicas in São Paulo, in which he received training
in surgical treatment of pain and movement disorder. Since 2015
he has been part of the Pain Group for pain treatment at the Hospital
das Clínicas in São Paulo. He is currently working
with deep brain stimulation (DBS) in cases of epilepsy, pain in
traumatic spine lesion and Parkinson’s disease.

Hanging (detail) Aya Ben Ron
|