Rethinking what the New Ecology is post Covid-19

The symposium "New Ecology and Artistic Practice" is to be held on the 17th December at Kanazawa City Hall hosted by 21st Century of Contemporary Art Kanazawa. What is the New Ecology in the post-pandemic? How will Art respond to it? We will invite Timothy Morton, a well-known advocate of the new ecological philosophy, to consider this question.

In his book Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics, world-renowned philosopher Timothy Morton argues for a new ecology that removes nature from ecological philosophy, which tends to fall into a dualism between nature and humans and puts humans on par with various other things. Coincidentally, the COVID-19 pandemic and disasters caused by environmental change have made us keenly aware that humans are also part of nature. How will art respond to this changing perception of nature in society?
To explore this question, we will hold a symposium with anthropologist Juichi Yamagiwa, artist AKI INOMATA, and philosopher Masatake Shinohara. Kanazawa has produced outstanding philosophers such as Kitaro Nishida and D.T. Suzuki. We will also reinterpret Zen philosophy as a new ecological theory for the post-pandemic era and explore ways to connect it to the creative practices in contemporary art.