The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish, part 6: Love and Lament
Co-curated by Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos in collaboration with Schering Stiftung
31 May
A long-term research project and festival series comes to Germany for the first time. Initiated and co-curated by Filipa Ramos and Lucia Pietroiusti, The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish convenes a wide range of perspectives, from visual art to literature, spirituality, biology and technology, to consider how consciousness, intelligence, language, affects and forms of togetherness are manifested and expressed across the Earth’s life forms. Love and Lament considers how love and care for a world in change are being affected by a sense of loss and transformation and how the traditional cycles of collapse and renewal are being challenged and interrupted. How the awareness of extinction, the experience of mourning and a renewed sense of love for nature coexist and may support one another. Participants include Aslak Aamot Helm, Jenna Sutela, Antoine Bertin, Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, Elizabeth Povinelli, Claudia Rankine, Giles Round, Staci Bu Shea, Alejandra Pombo Su, Michael Ohl and more.
Participants
Filipa Ramos
Filipa Ramos, PhD, is a Lisbon-born writer and curator whose research investigates art's relationship to ecology. She is Lecturer at the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel, and Artistic Director of Loop, a Festival dedicated to artist’s films, spread out across the cultural and artistic venues of Barcelona. Ramos curated BESTIARI, the Catalan representation at the 60th Biennale di Venezia (2024). She co-founded the online artists’ cinema Vdrome. She runs the art and science festival The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Lucia Pietroiusti, with whom she also curated Songs for the Changing Seasons for the 1. Klima Biennale Wien (2024) and Persones Persons (8th Biennale Gherdëina, 2022). In 2021, she co-curated Bodies of Water, the 13th Shanghai Biennale. Ramos was Editor-in-chief of e-flux Criticism (2013–20), Associated Editor of Manifesta Journal (2009–11) and contributed to Documenta 13 (2012) and 14 (2017). She edited Animals (Whitechapel Gallery/ MIT Press, 2016). Her upcoming book, The Artist as Ecologist (Lund Humphreys, 2025), discusses the ways in which contemporary artists embrace environmentalism.
Lucia Pietroiusti
Lucia Pietroiusti is a curator, programmer and strategist, working at the intersection of art, ecology and systems. As Head of Ecologies at Serpentine, London, Pietroiusti founded General Ecology in 2018 and the Ecologies department in 2023, to further ecological research and experimentation in thought, infrastructure and practice. Pietroiusti is the curator of Sun & Sea (Golden Lion at the 58th Venice Biennale and tour). With Filipa Ramos, she is the curator of Songs for the Changing Seasons (Vienna Klima Biennale, 2024) and Persones Persons (8th Biennale Gherdeïna, 2022). Pietroiusti is a curator of Sites of… Practice (E-WERK Luckenwalde, since 2024), Back to Earth (Serpentine, 2020-22) and Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes: The British East India Company on Trial by Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal (2025). Recent publications include More-than-Human (with Andrés Jaque and Marina Otero Verzier) and The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (with Filipa Ramos).
Prof. Dr. Michael Ohl
"I studied biology at the University of Kiel (zoology, marine biology, with parallel studies in philosophy) and completed my doctorate at the University of Göttingen (zoology with a minor in the history of science). In 1997, I was appointed to a curatorial position at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. In 2010 I habilitated in zoology and in 2020 I was appointed Associate Professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In addition to my research activities, I have been writing popular science non-fiction books. I am involved in a variety of public formats such as exhibitions (e.g. Darwin exhibition 2009), film and literature events (“Filmwelten der Wissenschaft”). I am very interested in interdisciplinary perspectives on natural history."
Elizabeth A. Povinelli
Elizabeth A. Povinelli is an academic, artist and filmmaker. She is Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at Columbia University, a founding member of the Karrabing Film Collective, and Correspondiong Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She is also the receipt of doctorate honoris causa from the University of Antwerp/Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts Her eight academic and books include Geontologies, A Requiem to Late Liberalism, winner of the Lionel Trilling Prize, and The Inheritance, a graphic nonfiction memoir. She has made over ten films with the Karrabing Film Collective. The Collective has received multiple prizes including Eye Award, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, The Visible Award, and the Cinema Nova Award Best Short Fiction Film, Melbourne International Film Festival. Povinelli’s individual drawings have been shown in multiple galleries, including a collection on permanent display in the Museo della Civiltà, Roma.
Antoine Bertin
Antoine Bertin weaves together science and sensory immersion, field recording and sound storytelling, data and music composition. His creations take the form of listening experiences, immersive moments and audio meditations exploring relationships in the living world, and sculpting conversations between humans and other species. His work has been presented at Tate Britain,with Google Arts & Culture, at Centre Pompidou, with Serpentine Gallery, at KIKK or STRP festival, as well as permanently installed in Kielder Forest (UK) and Sferik Art (MEX). He produces a quarterly show called “Edge of the Forest” on NTS radio, bringing together recordings, sonifications and voice into science inspired speculations. Studio Antoine Bertin is located in Paris (FR) and Alicudi Island (IT).
