Realities of Science Fiction II

In its second iteration, the symposium Realities of Science Fiction II focuses on a multiplicity of narratives such as Afrofuturism, Indigenous forms of knowledge, and science fiction as a mode of resistance. Through performative and discursive practices in the fields of science, literature, cinema and visual arts, different practitioners will question the current conditions of science-fictional imaginaries.

Following its inaugural program in 2021, which centered on the composition of possible worlds, a more hybrid approach is now proposed, where fiction and reality intertwine. The ways in which dreams open up to other realities, ambiguous spaces where the border between reality and imagination become indistinct, and the entanglement of multiple temporalities are among the concepts that will be explored during the symposium. Science-fictional connections of key narratives will be addressed through the prism of non-Western fields of knowledge, such as Indigenous cosmologies. Significant portions of this year’s program will reflect on how Afrofuturism and Black imaginaries produce unique versions of the future.

The symposium takes place alongside the opening weekend of the exhibition Though it’s dark, still I sing, Works from the 34th Bienal de São Paulo, presented at Les Forges from December 16, 2022, to March 5, 2023. Artists Amie Siegel and Naomi Rincón Gallardo, whose works are included in the exhibition, will also take part in the symposium, alongside speakers such as Arthur Jafa, Sky Hopinka, and Kara Keeling, among other.

Program

Free entrance (upon booking)
Note: All conferences are simultaneously translated (FR > EN). 
 

Friday, December 16, 2022
 

• 6:00 p.m.: Remarks
  The Tower, Level 8
   
• 6:15 p.m.: Conversation
  With Naomi Rincón Gallardo, artist, and Amie Siegel, artist
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conversation
   

• 6:45 p.m.: You Can't Dream About Dreaming Without Dreaming About Dreaming About Something 
  With Adam Haar Horowitz, PhD, Researcher, Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard Medical School's Center for Sleep and Cognition
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 7:45 p.m.: In conversation with Mami Wata #2
  Performance by Josèfa Ntjam, artist.
  The Tower, Auditorium, Level 1

Saturday, December 17, 2022
 

• 2:00 p.m.: Remarks
  The Tower, Level 8
   
• 2:15 p.m.: The Children of the Pond
  With Sabrina Calvo, writer and artist
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 3:00 p.m.: “It’s after the End of the World (Don’t You Know That Yet?)” Afrofuturism and Poetry from the Future 
  With Kara Keeling, PhD, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 3:45 p.m.: Break
   
• 4:00 p.m.: The Case for Dystopia: Evolution, neurology, and narrative in a world gone to sh…
  Arthur Jafa, artist, and Peter Watts, writer
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 5:00 p.m.: "Maabi-echi-zaagak, "This Great Love": Ninawemagaan, "Kinship" of Indigenous Futurisms"
  With Grace L. Dillon, PhD, writer and professor, Portland State University
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 5:30 p.m.: You are the dreamer, and the dream
  With Sky Hopinka, artist
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 6:30 p.m.: Book signing
  The Tower, Bookshop, Niveau 0
  ​​​​

Sunday, December 18, 2022
 

• 10:00 a.m.: Remarks
  The Tower, Level 8
   
• 10:05 a.m.: Science Fiction as Resistance. Radical Imagination in Critical Times 
  With Georgy Mamedov, curator and activist, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Arts, American University of Central Asia
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 10:45 a.m.: From Fiction to Facts. The Case of ITER
  With Nitendra Singh, PhD, nuclear engineer, ITER
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 11:30 a.m.: Break
   
• 11:45 a.m.: Living with the Huntington disease. Supporting Reality with Fiction
  With Valérie Pihet, Researcher and co-founder of the Ding Ding Dong association 
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  Recording of the conference
   

• 12:15 p.m.: Foumban Is Wakanda. When Africa Projects Itself Into the Future Without the West 
  With Jean-Pierre Bekolo, movie director, and Pascale Obolo, curator and editor of the review AFRIKADAA
  The Tower, Level 8

  
  
  Recording of the conference
   

Participants:

Jean-Pierre Bekolo (movie director), Sabrina Calvo (writer and artist), Grace L. Dillon (researcher), Naomi Rincón Gallardo (artist), Sky Hopinka (artist), Adam Haar Horowitz (researcher), Arthur Jafa (artist), Kara Keeling (researcher), Georgy Mamedov (curator and activist), Josèfa Ntjam (artist), Pascale Obolo (curator and editor of the review AFRIKADAA), Valérie Pihet (researcher and co-founder of the Ding Ding Dong association), Amie Siegel (artist), Nitendra Singh (nuclear security engineer, part of ITER), Peter Watts (writer).

Organised by Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, director of exhibitions and programs, Martin Guinard, curator of public programs, Flora Katz, curator, assisted by Claire Charrier, junior project manager.