Luce Irigaray: Giving birth to oneself; giving birth to one another

The Institute of Contemporary Arts

10 May 2017 ; 6:30 pm | Cinema 1

Philosopher Luce Irigaray presents a talk reflecting upon the nature of human existence through an analysis of birth. This is introduced by Elspeth Mitchell, who also leads the following discussion and marks the publication of Irigaray’s latest book “To Be Born” (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017).

Professor Luce Irigaray is author of more than thirty books translated into various languages, the most recent of which are “Sharing the World” (2008), “In the Beginning, She Was” (2012) and “Through Vegetal Being” (co-authored with Michael Marder, 2016). She is also the co-editor (with Michael Marder) of “Building a New World” (2015), a volume in which early-career researchers from her seminars explore new ways of thinking, in order to promote a world-wide community respectful of differences between the sexes, generations, cultures and traditions.

Elspeth Mitchell is a PhD researcher at the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, exploring the figure of ‘the girl’ in the moving image and feminist philosophy. She is associate editor of the critical theory and philosophy journal parallax and recently co-convened the second Feminist Readings symposium in 2016. She is also co-director of SPUR, a contemporary arts collective based in the North of England.

Luce Irigaray will dedicate her book(s) after the presentation.

For more information visit: https://www.ica.art/whats-on/luce-irigaray-giving-birth-oneself-giving-birth-one-another

9^th of June

From 10:00 to 12:00 am:

– Visit to the Botanical garden with comments by the responsible of the site on love of some flowers and amorous relations between insects and flowers.

At 12:30 pm:

– Lunch.

At 2:00 pm:

– Welcome coffee with registration of the new arrivals.

From 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm:

– Some words of welcome by Maria Fannin;

– Luce Irigaray (CNRS Paris): Giving Life;

– Lisa Watrous (Arisona State University): Labouring Love.

At 5:00 pm:

– Coffee break.

From 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm:

– Sinith Sittirak (University of Bangkok): Reading Love, Reading Silence; Re-reading the life of Grasroots’ Writing and Fighting for Land Rights in Thailand (1963-2004);

– Andrea Wheeler (Iowa State University): Building Energy, Building Love, Building a Living Architecture.

At 7:00 pm:

– Dinner.

10^th of June

From 9:30 am to 11:00 am:

– Maria Fannin (University of Bristol): Immunity as Love: Relations Between Others during pregnancy;

– Randolph Dible (University of Stony Brook): Woman, an Umbilical Unbiblical Genesis.

From 11:00 am to 11:30 am:

– Coffee break.

From 11:30 am to 1:00 pm:

– Katrina Mitcheson (University of the West of England): Louise Bourgeois: Ambivalence and Family;

– Jennifer Carter (University of Stony Brook): Rethinking Generational Relations through Touch.

1:00 pm:

– Lunch.

From 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm:

– Presentation with comments on words and drawings of girls and boys by Luce Irigaray and Jennifer Carter;

– Tanja Staehler made a little film in which her three sons express themselves about sexuation and sexuality and the girls will be invited to react to their words;

– Maria Fannin will organize a visit to a farm situated in a popular area of Bristol where they offer many activities for children. A tea break or a dinner will take place there.

11^th of June
From 9:00 am to 1:00 pm (with a coffee break at 11:00am):

– Presentation and Suggestions for a Updated Plato’s Symposium;

– Laura Roberts (University of Queensland): A Revolution of Love: Thinking through a Dialectic that Is Not One;

– Tanja Staeler (University of Sussex): Parental Love beyond Teleology;

– MahonO’Brien (University of Sussex): Socrates: the Unerotic Philosopher;

– Luce Irigaray (CNRS Paris): Giving Birth to one another through Love;

– With shorter interventions by Andrea Wheeler, Jennifer Carter, Lisa Watrous.

At 1:00 pm:

– Lunch.

From 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm:

– Walk and activities in Ashton Court Park, in particular in the rose garden.

The location of the conference is Wills Memorial Hall, Coutts Lecture Theatre Room 3.31, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK.