TACTIQUE DES TOURBIERES
2021 – Club 44, la Chaux-de-Fonds
Invited by artist Myriam Ziehli

“Tactiques des tourbières” is a proposal freely inspired by Donna Haraway's notion of "chthulucene". Using a terminology other than anthropocene, she takes us towards another reality, that of a "thick present" (mille feuilles); made up of infinite reflections, struggles and initiatives invisibilized by History (the one written by those who rule, those who win, those who dominate).

She criticizes the Anthropocene for being egocentric and terribly full of itself. How can a geological era envisaged in thousands of years suddenly be attributed to such a volatile human presence?

With chthulucene, she summons up a new chimerical entity between "khthốn"; subsoil, earth, humus in Greek and "Pimoa Cthulhu", a small spider from northern California. The spider's legs evoke the tentacles of an octopus, an image very present in the philosopher's imagination. The word tentacle comes from the Latin "tentare", which translates as "to feel". Donna suggests that we think in terms of contact with the ground. Connected to each other, tentacles enable active collective thinking.

︎︎︎ Photo credits: Myriam Ziehli

︎︎︎ Conférence de Benedikte Zitoun à écouter ici: Conférence de Benedikte Zitouni au Club 44