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SIRIUS ARTS Public Programme: Anton Vidokle and the Institute of the Cosmos September 2023

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The exhibition Anton Vidokle and the Institute of the Cosmos features four films by Anton Vidokle that utilize the expansive themes of Cosmism as a lens to explore biopolitics, immortalism, interplanetarianism, revolution, nutrition, utopia, resurrection, and museology. It also features a specially designed Institute of the Cosmos reading room including a timeline of Cosmism and an extensive selection of historical and contemporary texts exploring Cosmism and related topics.To accompany this exhibition, SIRIUS presents a public programme this September, and continuing into October, comprising various events that engage with Vidokle’s practice, particularly the works on view, and Cosmist ideas. These events include screenings, performances, panel discussions, and reading sessions, and involve the presentation of other films by Vidokle and commissioned, newly made works by artists based in Cork City and County.As part of the Cosmism-related public programme, SIRIUS presents two events this September:a screeningof Anton Vidokle’s film Citizens of the Cosmos, with a discussion led by Maximilian Le Cain; and a conversation between Jenny Butler and Rossana Henriques in response to Anton Vidokle’s film Autotrofia. 
Anton Vidokle, Citizens of the Cosmos (still), 2019. HD video, colour, sound, 30:19 minutes. Courtesy of the artist
Anton Vidokle, Autotrofia(still), 2020-23. HD video, colour, sound, 32:03 minutes. Courtesy of the artist

Irish premiere of Anton Vidokle’s film Citizens of the Cosmos, with a discussion led by Maximilian Le CainSaturday, 23 September
8–10pm
Free; no booking required

Anton Vidokle’s film Citizens of the Cosmos (2019) narrates the text of the manifesto of Biocosmism, written by Alexander Svyatogor in 1922, presenting an imagined community voicing the historical desires of Cosmism – immortality, resurrection of the dead and interplanetarism. This screening, the film’s Irish premiere, is followed by a discussion led by Cork City–based filmmaker and critic Maximilian Le Cain exploring the work’s key topics and aesthetics, including immortalism and cinema, speculative fiction, and approaches to filmmaking.


Conversation between Jenny Butler and Rossana Henriques in response to Anton Vidokle’s film Autotrofia (2020)
Saturday, 30 September
3–5pm
Free; no booking required

Anton Vidokle’s film Autotrofia considers the reconfiguration of digestion and nourishment – which serve as the foundations of societal structures – as they are replaced with vegetal mechanisms like photosynthesis. The film also documents the Italian harvest festival of King Oak and King Holly, where two trees symbolizing summer and winter are conjoined to produce one tall, allegedly supernatural tree. Rossana Henriques discusses future alternative food sources, with particular attention to the role of agricultural developments and plant genetics in creating a sustainable future. Jenny Butler discusses paganist ideas of social organisation, as manifest in practices such as planting and harvesting, specifically examining humans’ evolving relationship with the sun.

Jenny Butler is a Lecturer in the Study of Religions Department at the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, University College Cork.

Rossana Henriques is Paddy O’Keefe Senior Lecturer in Plant Genetics in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science, University College Cork.
 
Installation view of the Institute of the Cosmos Reading Room at SIRIUS. Photograph: John Beasley
 
FUTURE EVENTS

Speculative analysis of the Timeline of Cosmism, led by Miguel Amado and Sarah Long
Saturday,14 October, 3–5pm

Performance by BAN-EEE-UKT
Saturday,14 October, 8–10pm

Performance by The Quiet Club
Friday, 20 October, 8–10pm

Animated reading of Alexander Bogdanov’s novel Red Star, led by Miguel Amado
Saturday, 28 October, 3–5pm

Performance by Sarah Long
Saturday, 28 October, 7–8pm

Anton Vidokle’s Onward to the Stars! play performed by Eibhlís Beirne
Saturday, 28 October, 8–9pm

Nocturnal viewing of Anton Vidokle’s Cosmist trilogy, with a discussion led by Miguel Amado and Sarah Long
Saturday, 28 October, 9–11pm
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