Special Cooperations

Fig: Aisling O’Carroll, The Temple of Science, installation view, 2024. Photo: Moritz Bernoully

INSIDE OUT #4
Aisling O’Carroll
The Temple of Science

04.11.- 10.11.24
Opening: Monday, 04.11.24, 6 pm
Exhibition in the Window of the Kunsthalle and online here
In cooperation with Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
Curated by Theresa Deichert
Fig.: Aisling O’Carroll
The Temple of Science examines the entwined geological, glaciological, and human histories of the Unteraar glacier in the Bernese Alps through a reconstruction of the Hôtel des Neuchâtelois. The Hôtel des Neuchâtelois was an improvised mountain hut occupied by a group of glaciologists during their summer expeditions in 1840 and 1841. The hut was built under the shelter of a huge erratic block of micaceous schist found on the Unteraar glacier’s medial moraine. The mountain hut was lost when the boulder broke apart in the winter of 1842. Its brief existence registers a moment when geological, glaciological, and human timescales converged in the valley.

The Hôtel has since been romanticized as the ‘Temple of Science’ in Western scientific and Alpine narratives, bolstering the authority and intrepidity of the expeditioners in the landscape. Using evidence from both fieldwork and archives, this 1:5 scale reconstruction of the hut offers an alternative ‘Temple of Science’ for today. In place of the original dry-stone wall, the mirrored enclosure of this version reflects and invites different perspectives — from both humans and non-humans. It aims to expand whose knowledge is valued in the Temple of Science. The reconstruction encourages fresh ways of understanding long-term planetary changes, helping us rethink dominant models of environmental knowledge.

Aisling O‘Carroll is a designer, researcher, and landscape architect. Her work uses experimental methods to reconstruct landscape histories from diverse material archives, including drawings, photographs, written accounts, geological records, and botanical material. She is a Lecturer at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where she is currently completing her PhD in Architectural Design.

Accompanying Programm
Opening + Meet & Greet
with Aisling O’Carrol and Charlotte Wrigley
Monday, 04.11.2024, 6:00 pm
Kunsthalle Giessen

Film & Artist Talk (in English): 
Tuesday, 05.11.2024, 6:30 pm
Last Things (Deborah Stratman, 2023)
Talk with Aisling O‘Carroll & Lukáš Likavčan
Kinocenter Giessen, Bahnhofstrasse 34, 35390 Giessen

Download the invite here
Fig: The body of a dead Russian soldier in the car of a search party. The bodies collected are taken to the local morgue. Ukrainian officers estimate that around 100 Russian soldiers died in the attack. Voznesenk, 15.03.2022. Photo courtesy Vincent Haiges.

Panel discussion
Depictions of Excessive Use of Force – Between Disturbance and Attraction

In cooperation with TraCe Research Center for Transformation of Political Violence

Wednesday, 30.10.24, 6 pm
On site or via Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/@TraCe_Violence/
How do images of violence affect us? When do they become voyeuristic spectacles, and when are they necessary documents? The public dialogue panel sheds light on depictions of excessive violence in reporting, art, and social media, and connects perspectives from both academia and practice. We aim to bring together views from the research center “Transformations of Political Violence” (TraCe) as well as from journalism, war photography, and exhibition practices to discuss the visual portrayal of excessive violence in various media contexts, especially focusing on the boundaries of what can be shown. The dialogue panel will be professionally livestreamed on YouTube.

Welcome: Nadia Ismail (Director of the Kunsthalle Giessen) & Katharina Lorenz (President of Justus Liebig University Giessen)
Panel: Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann (TraCe), Vincent Haiges (war photographer), Claudia Hattendorff (art historian), & Cornelia Wegerhoff (journalist)
Moderation: Tina Cramer

The event will be held in German.
Admission is free.
No pre-registration is required.

The panel marks the opening of the two-day 2024 annual academic conference of TraCe, which will feature 13 short presentations and three keynotes, spanning a wide conceptual arc: from international excessive violence and its legal frameworks in history and the present, to civil wars, domestic violence, and questions of justice following the use of excessive violence.

Excessive violence is not a new phenomenon. However, recent developments in the exercise of political violence increasingly challenge existing norms and practices aimed at curbing it. In the face of new forms of warfare, evolving terrorist violence, and rising disregard for international humanitarian law, humanity is under pressure. These transformations in political violence also challenge our ability to understand, analyze, and, ideally, mitigate or resolve the growing number and intensification of conflicts. The contributions at the 2024 TraCe annual conference, hosted by Justus Liebig University Giessen, will tackle the challenge of understanding these phenomena from sociocultural, historical, and empirical perspectives, while seeking normative solutions.

The research center “Transformations of Political Violence” (TraCe) is an interdisciplinary research network of five Hessian institutions: the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), Goethe University Frankfurt, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Philipps University Marburg, and Technical University Darmstadt. TraCe is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Abb.: Omar Torrico Real in Die andere Seite von Constantin Hochkeppel und Ensemble, Foto: Rolf K. Wegst

(Re)Spacing – Mama Made Me Do It
Dance performance by and with Emma Jane Howley, Gustavo de Oliveira Leite, Maja Mirek & Omar Torrico Real

Wednesday, 23.10.24, 7 pm, Kunsthalle Giessen
A cooperation with the Stadttheater Gießen

In the successful performance series “(Re)Spacing,” a collaboration between the dance ensemble of Stadttheater Gießen and Kunsthalle Giessen, dancers are now, for the fifth time, developing their own choreography. Gustavo de Oliveira Leite, Emma Jane Howley, Maja Mirek, and Omar Torrico Real have drawn inspiration from the bold, opulent aesthetic of Rachel Maclean’s exhibition “MAMA MIMI DUCK” to create their own performance titled “Mama Made Me Do It.” The performance will take place on October 23, 2024, at 7:00 PM at Kunsthalle Giessen, with a one-time showing.

Admission is free. No prior registration is required.

Performance: Gustavo de Oliveira Leite, Maja Mirek, and Omar Torrico Real
Concept, Choreography, Stage & Lighting Design: Emma Jane Howley, Gustavo de Oliveira Leite
Soundscapes & Composition: Gustavo de Oliveira Leite
Mask – Painting: Nadine Pahlen
Make-up: Emma Jane Howley