OPENING THE PILL
A performative symposium
A series of events marking the Kingdom of the Ill exhibition that will explore the concept of dependency within the complex topic of mental health
Three days of events focused on exploring the concept of dependency within the complex, contemporary panorama of mental health: OPENING THE PILL, a performative symposium, is the latest initiative organized by the cultural incubator MUSEION Art Club, in occasion of the exhibition Kingdom of the Ill, from 17 to 19 November 2022 at Museion, Bolzano. The project is the winner of the PAC – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea, promoted by the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura (General Department for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture).
OPENING THE PILL – part of Beyond the Artwork, a content group research project organized by the Museion Art Club Forum (Frida Carazzato, Giulia Cordin, Brita Köhler, Flavio Pintarelli and Michael Scerbo) for 2022 and 2023 – will explore (mental) health as a technology, whose biotechnological apparatuses produce definitions like sick, healthy, dependent and sober in a constant negotiation between body and machine, organic and artificial, natural and synthetic.
In this context, the pill becomes the starting point and the means for presenting alternative practices and perspectives of emancipation. Thus, “opening the pill” means getting to know the technologies that are changing us today and discovering our political relationships with the technology we have become.
Starting from well-known pills, such as estrogens, anti-depressants and stimulants, the OPENING THE PILL encounters will touch on various fields to highlight the complexity that underlies our relationship with these biotechnologies through talks, workshops, performances, reading groups and projects in Museion’s public space that will involve a wide-ranging audience in a variety of experiences.
Various artists will take part in the program, such as Shu Lea Cheng, Mary Maggic, Zander Porter, Charlie Laban Trier and Enrico Floriddia; the Patternhouse project promoters who will be hosted at the Casa Basaglia in Merano, as well as theorists and researchers, including João Florêncio, Valeria Graziano, Enrico Petrilli and many other local and international contributors.
14-17 November
Enrico Floriddia, pirate library, reading group
Thursday 17
6:00 – 7:00pm Charlie Laban Trier, Surfacing HypoKrisia, durational performance
6:30pm Opening event, an introduction curated by members of the Content Group
7:00 – 7:30pm Marina Orlova, digital lecture/performance
8:00 – 9:00pm Josefine Aavild Rahn, One Woman Musical, performance
Friday 18
2:00 – 4:00pm Charlie Laban Trier, Surfacing HypoKrisia, durational performance
2:00 – 3:30pm Presentation of the Patternhouse project with Martina Drechsel and Dr. Verena Perwanger – in German
3:30 – 6:00pm Workshop with Patternhouse
6:30 – 8:00pm Queer technologies: biopolitics, emancipation and world-making. João Florêncio in conversation with Shu Lea Cheng and Mary Maggic
In English, live streamed online
Saturday 19
2:00 – 4:00pm Charlie Laban Trier, Surfacing HypoKrisia, durational performance
10:00 – 12:00am / Worlding with the Molecular, a workshop with Mary Maggic
2:00 – 3:00pm
3:00 – 4:30pm Considering ‘health’: the pathologisation of bodies and the activism of pleasure. Simone Frangi in conversation with Enrico Petrilli, Valeria Graziano, and Silvia Casini
In Italian
5:00 – 6:30pm Misunderstood minds: questions on mental health and care. Michael Guggenheim in conversation with Barbara Plagg, Julia Maier, and Peter Koler
In German
7.30 – 8.00pm Zander Porter, ADHD Penetration, performance. The performance ADHD Penetration contains explicit sexual acts and may not be viewed by persons under the age of 18.
Museion Art Club is an incubator and amplifier that offers space, visibility and networking to the local creative scene by generating independent interaction between the museum and drivers of urban change. Conceived by the Museion Art Club Forum, a group of nine young people from outside the institution who freely develop formats aimed at the public, its aim is to sustain and accelerate contemporary culture in the South Tyrol.
OPENING THE PILL a performative symposium is an in-depth cultural exploration of the exhibition Kingdom of the Ill, the second installment of TECHNO HUMANITIES, an international group exhibition that offers a contemporary analysis of the dichotomy between sickness and health.
Download the Press Release
The project has been made possible also thanks to the support of the Embassy and Consulate General of the Netherlands in Italy and PAC – the Plan for Contemporary Art, promoted by the Ministry of Culture.
The project is the winner of the PAC – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea, promoted by the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura (General Department for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture).
With the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
A Museion Art Club Forum event
With the support of Museion Private Founders
