Dorothée Elisa Baumann

Dorothée Elisa Baumann

Dorothée Elisa Baumann is an artist based in Switzerland. Her work has been shown in collective exhibitions such as the Hayward Gallery London, Centre d'art contemporain Walter Benjamin France, Centre Pasquart photoforum, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Noorderlicht Festival Holland. She had major solo shows in CPG (2012) and Centre Pasquart (2018) and a monograph published by Editions CPG/Les presses du reel (2017). Dorothée was a finalist for the Critique Prize Voies Off France (2012) and Young Swiss Talent. Most recently she received two grants from the Swiss National Research Foundation (2019-2021) to work on the project Unlearning for the Commons.

Artist Statement (March 2023)

I am currently reflecting on western culture nature separation. I am creating artwork around collaboration and communication with the living and non-human actors.

More about Dorothee Elisa Baumann: http://www.dorotheebaumann.ch

 

PhD Project

Unlearning for The Commons

Based on initial postcolonial research with a focus on gender and racism issues in relation to photography (global industrialization and colonization through a cultural practice using the example of Kodak), the following ontological questions have emerged through the decolonial research process: What modern consciousness of reality is at work in the medium, technology and process of photography?

The focus is therefore on relationships, no longer on technology, especially the relationships between non-humans, animals and plants, both in the global North and the global South.

In addition to approaches from the global South, I refer to two theoretical approaches: Philippe Descola and his analysis of naturalism and Arturo Escobar's political ontology and the idea of pluriversality. Therefore, a second, collaborative and practical part, a so-called pluriversal project is starting in 2024, focusing on the process and the “how”.

It discusses the (relational) ontology and epistemology of post-'representation' or 'post-representationism' or other representational epistemologies and epistemes - of the world, of the cosmos, of "worlding", by asking what it means to have a so-called "earth-connected" approach in a joint approach between the Global North and the Global South that meets the current challenges of climate change.

In the final phase of the project “Unlearning For The Commons”, a final investigation of the relationship between the ontological Bernese bear and the Bernese population as an image and symbol of a pluralistic perspective on an animal and a human-animal relationship in transition will take place. The subject of this final research phase in 2025 will be the local Bernese bears, Finn, Björk and Ursina, as well as the cultural representations of the Bernese bear and the change in these natural relationships over time, and the results will be related to the current discussion on species protection and “terracide” in the climate debate.

The official partner of the final phase of the PhD project is the Tier- and Bärenpark Bern