ENSAYOS: PASSAGES

NEW MUSEUM’S FIRST ONLINE DIGITAL RESIDENCY, 2020

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I am part of Ensayos–a collective research practice–including artists, scientists, activists, policymakers, and local community members–who focus on the ecopolitics of archipelagos, and have developed distinct inquiries into extinction, human geography, and coastal health.

Initiated in Karukinka Natural Park, located on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago known for its remoteness, biodiversity, and extreme conditions, Ensayos first focused on past and present issues impacting the region at the southern tip of Patagonia. In recent years, various configurations of Ensayos practitioners have explored the shared and localized extremes of the land, water, and life of archipelagos on three additional continents, including inquiries in Eastern Australia, Norway, and New York.

New Museum’s Department of Education and Public Engagement invited “Ensayos: Passages,” to its first online artist residency (2020). During their New Museum residency, Ensayos opened their intimate methodologies to a larger public. Their deep investigations consider collective identity, colonial history, multispecies communication, Aboriginal law, and the ethics of care in relation to wetlands, the sea, and coastlines. In order to contemplate ecological health from the microscopic to the global, the New Museum program will focus on how storytelling can offer possibilities for connection across remote geographies and diverse ways of experiencing the world.

Lead Ensayistas for the New Museum residency are Ensayos founder and director, curator Camila Marambio (Papudo, Chile) and artist Christy Gast (Amenia, New York), with Aboriginal legal scholar Dr. C.F. Black (Gold Coast, Australia), artist Ariel Bustamante (La Paz, Bolivia), artist Caitlin Franzmann (Brisbane, Australia), educator Sarita Gálvez (Naarm/Melbourne, Australia), artist Søssa Jørgensen (Skiptvet, Norway), art historian Carla Macchiavello (Santiago, Chile), sociologist Denise Milstein (Harlem, New York), Selk’nam activist Hema’ny Molina (Santiago, Chile), artist Randi Nygård (Oslo, Norway), dance-artist Amaara Raheem (Black Range, Australia), ecologist Bárbara Saavedra (Santiago, Chile), artist Carolina Saquel (Paris, France), curator Karolin Tampere (Lofoten, Norway), anthropologist Michael Taussig (Brooklyn, New York), artist Geir Tore Holm (Skiptvet, Norway), ichthyologist Lynne Van Herwerden (Magnetic Island, Australia).

For Ensayos: Passages I collaborated with artist Caitlin Franzmann and Aboriginal scholar and storyteller Dr. C.F. Black to make Fortunes of the Forest: Divination, Dance, and Story.

"Fortunes of the Forest: Divination, Dance, and Story" was a livestreamed, participatory performance that incorporated ritual, plant knowledge, movement, listening, and response-ability. This program, hosted on August 18, 2020, was part of the New Museum digital residency “Ensayos: Passages.” Ensayos collaborators based in Eastern Australia--Dr. C.F. Black, Amaara Raheem, and Caitlin Franzmann--each brought unique interpretations to divination cards, which they pulled in response to concerns and questions gathered collectively from participants.