Meandering: Art, Ecology, and Metaphysics

by Sofia Lemos (Editor), Markus Reymann (Foreword by)

Overview

A case study for community-oriented artistic research into the cultural, spiritual, and ecological trajectories of waterways.

Inspired by how rivers bend and curve, connecting entire ecosystems, Meandering: Art, Ecology, and Metaphysics unfolds the cultural, historical, spiritual, and ecological trajectories of waterways, reflecting the vitality of water, from source to sea. A diverse group of artists and writers set out to trace river systems from the sierras and forests of southern Spain, to the heartlands of the Americas and the undersurface of the Mediterranean, proposing new routes for collaborative research and knowledge-production.

In newly commissioned texts and a selection of influential essays—including a transhistorical dialogue between the twelfth-century mystic, Ibn ‘Arabî and the renowned essayist, Sylvia Wynter—as well as lyrics, scent, recipes, critical-contemplative writing, and guided meditations, Meandering combines rich visual documentation with insights from the fields of art, visual culture, environmental humanities, ecotheosophy, mysticism, critical theory, and decolonial studies. This volume offers a practical and poetic toolset for a dynamic reconciliation between action and imagination to address the pressing social and environmental challenges of our time.

This publication is part of an art and ecology research program of the same name curated by Sofia Lemos at TBA21–Academy. By exploring social and environmental justice through the lens of community-oriented practice, it presents a case for the role of artistic research and public programs in revealing our interbeing, and shapes new convergences between interdisciplinary and interfaith studies.

Contributors
Jesús Alcaide, Sally F. Barleycorn, Lourdes Cabrera, Edgar Calel, Federico Campagna, Carolina Caycedo, Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu, Elizabeth Gallón Droste, Victoria García Gómez, Francisco Godoy Vega, Brooke Holmes, Lafawndah, Sofia Lemos, Isabel Lewis, Gracia López Anguita, Juan Lopéz Intzín, Gabrielle Mangeri, Michael Marder, Ana María Millán, Eduardo Navarro, Carmen Pérez Cuello, Lorenzo Sandoval, Chaveli Sifre, Emilija Škarnulytė, Medina Tenour Whiteman, Rosa Tharrats, Caique Tizzi, and Sylvia Wynter.

Copublished by TBA21-Academy

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781915609519
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	08/20/2024
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.12(d)

About the Author

Sofia Lemos is a curator and writer. With an interest in art and ecology, she views exhibitions and public programs as mediums for collaborative knowledge-production. Between 2021–24, she was Curator at TBA21–Academy, where she launched the fellowship program Meandering for artists working with ecology and community practice. From 2018–21, she was Curator of Public Programmes and Research at Nottingham Contemporary, where she initiated the multi-year research project Sonic Continuum with multiple academic partners and and was Associate Editor at The Contemporary Journal. She regularly lectures and contributes writing to publications, monographs, and exhibition catalogues.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"There is a special relationship between rivers and imagination. Both bring life to the Earth, mix climates and territories, disrupt hierarchies, and produce the unity of all places. This book is an ode to the power of rivers (and their earthly imagination), which never stop creating."
—Emanuele Coccia, Philosopher and author of The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture

"Meandering is an engaged and meaningful collaborative project that swerves away from colonial history to bravely seek that elsewhere. A beautiful way to pursue living and embodied research practice. A brilliant watery collection that meanders with care into the pastpresent-future in order to find the gentle and illuminated space of the decolonized beyond."
—Macarena Gómez-Barris, Endowed Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University, and author of The Extractive Zone