Zeszyty Artystyczne -
Curating for Planetary Balance: Curatorial Strategies of Care in the Face of Contemporary Challenges.

Curating exhibitions as spaces for a creative response to ecological challenges is becoming a key area of reflection and experimentation in the face of the climate crisis. The rapid changes in the ecosystem necessitate reevaluation of established patterns of thinking, particularly regarding human-nonhuman relationships and our role in the environment. Growing awareness of our entanglement with the world encourages us to ask questions and take actions. We believe that narratives of belonging and new visions for the future should be created and communicated through various voices. We are dedicating the new issue of Zeszyty Artystyczne to institutional and curatorial strategies that address the challenges of the environmental catastrophe. Our focus is on emerging curatorial models inspired by ecology, dark ecology, ecofeminism, actor-network theory (ANT) and posthumanism.

The issue aims to showcase strategies proposed by curators, artists, researchers and theorists that deepen existing theories while fostering new ideas. It is grounded in the belief that nature can teach us how to shape culture and that these insights can be applied in practice. Submissions from those observing climate change and its impact on institutions are most welcome. Our focus includes artistic and curatorial strategies in the context of these changes, post-humanist reflection and interspecies relationships.

We aim to create a space for dialogue and exploration of non-obvious inspirations and metaphors drawn from plants, animals, matter and natural phenomena. These might include fungi, which co-create nature-culture networks and, as described by Anna Tsing, have developed strategies for survival amid the ruins of capitalism. Donna Haraway also describes life in a world destroyed by the ecological crisis, proposing visions of Compost Communities that “stay with the trouble” and rebuild relationships with the beings around them. Suspecting that we, too, may need to “stay with the trouble”, it is worth considering new ways of shaping culture. In the age of the climate crisis, should exhibitions be created differently? As curators navigating the contemporary art field, how can we learn from compost, lichens, fungi, wetlands, ocean tides etc.? What might ecofeminist curating look like -caring, entangled and allied with other species?
The division between culture and nature is proving inadequate in the face of contemporary challenges. Particularly relevant in this context are Timothy Morton's reflections introducing the concept of dark ecology, which encourages us to embrace the anxiety and discomfort arising from coexistence with the environment. Morton reminds us that we are inextricably linked to nature, including its darkest aspects. This idea aligns with Karen Barad's concept of “being-of-the-world” or Bruno Latour's belief in the mutual influence of network actors. How can narratives about belonging to the world support new visions of curating and artistic practices both within and beyond institutions?

Additional questions:
What new curatorial and artistic models can address the challenges of the climate crisis?
How can curatorial and institutional practices draw inspiration from strategies observed in nature?
In what way can ecosystems, plants or animals influence the design of culture?
What examples of ecologically inspired curating can be found in history and what is their origin?
What forms of interspecies cooperation can be explored through curatorial activities?
How can art and culture serve as space for reflection and action in response to the climate crisis?
How can curators and artists foster dialogue and drive change in the face of ecological disaster?
What forms of cooperation between human and non-human actors can shape the future of culture?
How can art institutions adapt to changing ecological conditions?

Text length: 20,000–40,000 characters with spaces.
Deadline for abstract submissions: April 30, 2025
After acceptance of abstracts, deadline for submitting texts: June 30, 2025.
E-mail: zeszyty.artystyczneuap.edu.pl and marta.smolinskauap.edu.pl

Detailed editorial guidelines are available at
http://za.uap.edu.pl/?page_id=12

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“Zeszyty Artystyczne” (transl. as “Art Notebooks”) is an academic peer-reviewed journal focusing on the broad perspective of issues regarding visual arts, humanities and art education. This journal, published by the Faculty of Art Education and Curatorial Studies, Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań, Poland, uniquely combines scholarly analysis and critical artistic methods of creating and writing. It has been published since 1983, being the only academic and artistic journal with such a long tradition in Poland. The referential version is the paper edition, which is published twice a year.
ISSN: 1232-6682