CAT'S CRADLE
OPEN CALL FOR THE WORKSHOP'S FOURTH EDITION
A WORKSHOP CURATED BY Kabul Magazine
DEADLINE17 October 2021, h 13.00
CAT’S CRADLE #1 | ECOFEMMINISMO
28 October 2021, h 17.30 – online workshop
CAT’S CRADLE #2 | MASCHIOCENE30
October 2021, h 10.00 – in person workshop
The exhibition is open to the public in accordance with the current Covid-19 rules, upon presentation of a green pass.
Within The Cool Couple’s project “The Cute and the Useful” promoted by Careof, KABUL’s editorial staff is inviting researchers, artists, curators, students, and enthusiasts to participate in the fourth edition of CAT’S CRADLE, a workshop where two terms regarded as crucial within the debate on environmental and gender studies will be discussed and analyzed: ECOFEMMINISMO (ecofeminism) and MASCHIOCENE (androcene).
Considered vital to understanding certain aspects of contemporary issues, the two terms will become, in the stage following the workshop, two entries collected in a glossary that will be published on the magazine's website as part of the research developed on this theme during the last few years.
CAT'S CRADLE is a workshop for collective discussion and analysis whose purpose is to compile a glossary of terms often overused, despite them not being very accessible to the general public. The goal is to organize one or several events, open to any kind of public, focused on comparing and sharing tools aimed at understanding theoretical concepts and analyzing them in depth.
The discussion, prompted by the use of images, videos, and texts selected by KABUL's editorial staff, will allow individual reflections and references, based on the shared content, yet enriched by the experience and knowledge of the participants.
The group discussion is a preparatory operation and a starting point in order to compile the glossary. KABUL’s editorial staff will then come up with the selected terms’ definition following the considerations that emerged during the workshop.
In the fourth edition of CAT'S CRADLE, KABUL’s editorial staff presents two kinds of workshops: one online, the other in person. In both cases, participants, selected through an open call, will receive an introduction kit related to the themes discussed in the workshop. After the workshops, a final online meeting, open to everyone, will be held to present the results.
“The Cute and the Useful” by The Cool Couple and promoted by Careof is a winning project of Italian Council 2020 (8th edition), a program for the international support and promotion of contemporary Italian art by the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea (DGCC) for the Ministry of Culture.
CAT'S CRADLE is organized with the contribution of Regione Lombardia.
Click here to read the complete text and participate in the open call
KABUL
KABUL Is a contemporary arts and culture magazine (KABUL magazine), an independent publishing house (KABUL editions), a free digital translation archive(KABUL digital library), and a non-profit cultural organization (KABUL projects). KABUL has been working since 2016 for the promotion of contemporary culture in Italy. Together with critics, university lecturers, and industry professionals, it handles the vulgarization of central themes and research in the current international artistic and cultural debate. www.kabulmagazine.com
"The Cute and the Useful" by The Cool Couple
Faced with the rapid changes that characterize our times, we are now used to the saying according to which nature just stopped existing. However, it seems difficult to accept its consequences: in the middle of the sixth mass extinction, collective imagination is populated by hyper realistic visions of heavenly landscapes, while throngs of anthropomorphic animals inhabit our daily life. Even when the discussion moves on to the topic of environmental preservation, the dominant vision dreams of an Arcadia where nature is a synonym of freedom and purity. “The Cute and the Useful” places itself at the intersection of these tensions.
The expression “the cute and the useful” refers to the species which will survive the current mass extinction thanks to their emotional or economic relationship with human beings.
The Cute and the Useful describes a specific model of faunal preservation, particular to South Africa, which took the shape of a true economic industry.
The so-called wildlife industry is based on the concept of conservation by utilization. It transforms animals into an asset that can be bought, given up, rented, and consequently protects them. Most of the animals in South Africa are owned by the State or private individuals. They are listed on the stock market, and are dependent on market rules. Periodically, in the country, auctions allow people to buy or give up animals. However, the wildlife industry led to a 400% increase in the number of wild animals from 1970 to today. This data probably makes the wildlife industry the most effective faunal preservation system in the world.
The absurd logic that would have environmental preservation go through the conversion of life into an asset is in deep conflict with many stereotypes that are still present in the western mindset.
"The Cute and the Useful" intends to narrate them, describing the transformation of the capitalist system in its "green" version.