Olivia Tapiero: A Withdrawal Towards the Horizon

Lecture
Tuesday, January 26, 12 p.m.
Free, online, In French
Zoom, YouTube

This lecture will address the question of resistance and collectivity outside of abelist notions of “action” or “uprisal,” focusing instead on the idea of radical withdrawal (or non-consent). This withdrawal will be considered in correspondence with artists and intellectuals such as Fred Moten, Anne Boyer, Marguerite Duras, Audra Simpson, Nils Frahm, Nathanaël, Alejandra Pizarnik, Chris Marker, Johanna Hedva and Tricia Hersey. Also of focus in the lecture and following workshop is the abolitionist potential of somatic practices and the biomimetic as conceptual creation. In turn, we will draw knowledge from our translation of living phenomena, such as tardigrades, volcanos, plants, hummingbirds and black holes, in order to locate a power of refusal that can be articulated outside of anthropocentric and colonial paradigms.

Olivia Tapiero is a writer and translator. She is the author of Les murs (Prix- Robert-Cliche 2009, Prix Senghor finalist), Espaces (2012), Phototaxie (2017) and Rien du tout (2020), and coeditor of the collection Chairs (2019). Member of the editorial committee at Moebius, she has contributed to numerous publications, among them Estuaire, Liberté and Tristesse. Her shifting work is crossed by a sense for disintegration, a contempt towards institutions and nationalism, and the exploration of non-consent to the state of the world.