Symposium: Tales of Superstition and Magic

Conference, workshop, conversation

Parc des Ateliers
The Tower
From  to 

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LUMA Arles presents an interdisciplinary symposium that seeks to explore the fascinating, often mystifying world of superstition and magic. Taking place over three days, this unique event delves into the long-standing relationship between different systems of belief and knowledge production.

Examining how a rich range of traditions and spiritual practices continue to shape cultural perspectives and personal beliefs, the symposium brings together a mix of participants whose research focuses on scientific understandings as well as concepts or phenomena that sit outside the bounds of conventional disciplines.

The relationship between science and popular cultural beliefs has long manifested in oppositional terms, delimiting how premonitions or magic can describe reality and produce truth. Recent research provides new ways to relate modern epistemologies and alternative modes of perceiving and describing the world. The symposium offers a platform for discussion, highlighting the importance of thoughtful engagement with these practices. Bridging the gap between ancient wisdom and contemporary knowledge, it explores the power and complexity of belief and the plurality of fields of reality at the edge of the visible.

During the three-day symposium, artists, authors, and researchers gather to discuss these ideas and explore the ways in which alternative forms of organizing perception are woven into the fabric of everyday life.


Dates: from Friday, December 13th, to Sunday, December 15th 
Venue: The Tower

 

Program

Free upon registration
Note:
All talks will be translated live (EN / FR).

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Friday, December 13 2024

From 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

With:
Tony Oursler, Artist ; Tom Eccles, Senior Advisor, LUMA ArlesFanny Charrasse, Socio-anthropologist

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6:30 p.m.: Introduction

6:40 p.m.: Conference
Naturalism under the strain of Magnetism - Spirit Apparitions and Energetic Healing Practices
By Fanny Charrasse, PhD, Socio-anthropologist, Postdoctoral researcher at the Saint-Louis University in Brussels

7:15 p.m.: Conversation
The Ghost of my Friends
With Tony Oursler, Artist and Tom Eccles, Senior Advisor, LUMA Arles

Saturday, December 14 2024

From 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Attendee:
Hannah Black, Writer and Artist

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9:30-12:30 a.m.: Workshop
“What time is it on the clock of the world?” *
A workshop by Hannah Black, Writer and Artist

This workshop will use astrology—understood not just in its modern guise of character typology but as a system of scientific/poetic/political knowledge linking celestial movements to human activities, dating at least as far back as ancient Babylon, around 1800 BCE—as a way of thinking about the articulation between the self and history. What does time measure?

Participants are invited to playfully (and seriously!) consider astrology as a “clock of the world” based on a kind of literal historical materialism of the movement of time itself. We will look at the structure of the chart—a wheel representing a day—as well as the symbolism of planets and their synodic cycles. 

We will use both personal birth charts and the event chart of the Haitian Revolution to explore how astrological concepts of cyclical and cumulative time can shed light on particular historical, epochal moments and our own relation to them. 

Through the lens of astrology, we will discuss if we can understand our individual lives as expressing particular tasks or dispositions in relation to collective events.

(The workshop will be held in English and translated to French.)
 
Duration: 3 hours
Workshop location: “La Formation” Building

(*) “What time is it on the clock of the world?“—James and Grace Lee Boggs, 1974

Last-minute tickets will be available on the day of the workshop, within the limits of available seats.

From 2:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Attendees: Nicole Edelman, Historian; Marine Benoit, Journalist; Tanya Luhrmann, Anthropologist; Madison Bycroft, Artist and Performer; Ekow Eshun, Writer and Curator; Saodat Ismaïlova, Artist and Filmmaker; Hannah Black, Writer and Artist

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2:00 p.m.: Conference
Ghosts, Communications with Extraterrestrial Spirits, Clairvoyance, Trances: How Can We Analyze These Phenomena as Historians?
By Nicole Edelman, PhD, Historian, Honorary Professor at Paris-Nanterre University

2:45 p.m.: Conference
In Tenebris: the Paranormal and Critical Thinking 
By Marine Benoit, Journalist at Science & Avenir

3:15 p.m.: Conference
Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others
By Tanya Luhrmann, PhD, Anthropologist, Stanford University (online)

3:30 p.m.: Conference
LMNOP
By Madison Bycroft, Artist and Performer

4:15 p.m.: Break

4:30 p.m.: Conference
In the Black Fantastic
By Ekow Eshun, Writer and Curator

5:15 p.m.: Conversation
Steppes’s Memory of the Future
With Saodat Ismaïlova, Artist and Filmmaker

5:45 p.m.: Conference
LUMA Birth Chart Reading
By Hannah Black, Writer and Artist

 

Sunday, December 15 2024

From 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Attendees:
Danai Anesiadou
, Artist; Yuna Visentin, Writer and Essayist; Donatien Grau, Philologist; Hans Ulrich Obrist, Senior Advisor, LUMA Arles; Theaster Gates (TBC), ArtistMartin Guinard, Curator, LUMA Arles

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10:00 a.m.: Conversation
D-possessions or Like John Malkovich Breaking Up with Michelle Pfeiffer / It’s Beyond my Control
With Danai Anesiadou, Artist

10:30 a.m.: Conference
Radical Spiritualities: Ways of Reading and Practicing Jewish Tradition Beyond the Category of Religion
By Yuna Visentin, Writer and Essayist

11:15 a.m.: Break

11:30 a.m.: Conference
Read the Magic
By Donatien Grau, Philologist

12:15 p.m.: Panel
Superstition and Magic
With Donatien Grau, Philologist, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Senior Advisor, LUMA Arles, and Martin Guinard, Curator, LUMA Arles

1:00 p.m.: Performance
Theaster GatesArtist (online) TBC

Conceived and organized by Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Artistic Director, Martin Guinard, Curator, Flora Katz, Curator, Salma Mochtari, Research Manager.

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