Caring-with: On Potentialities and Challenges of Relational Approaches
🗓️ Wednesday, 24 June — 10:10am
- 11:10am
(60 mins)
Presenters
Image
Abstract
Dialogic art formats such as the 'experiential exercise' (Cologni 2021, 2025) are understood in terms of embodied care, in relation to the percipience quality of the body and its capacity to care (Hamington 2004, Cologni 2024). This approach is rooted in the reciprocal nature of 'caring-with' (Cologni 2020, Tronto 2013) acknowledging our interconnectedness and interdependence with one another and the environment. In artistic research, care - as central and not peripheral - provides a platform for understanding maintenance, mothering, emotional labour, as well as public and ecological responsibility (Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2027), and planetary commitment.
References.
Notes on Care (Soil Time), (artist book - activation) in Feminist Resonances between Text and Image: Visual Practices since the 1970s. Conference at University of Sussex, 15th May 2026, in collaboration with Museion, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano
'From The Home To The Planet. A Dialogue Between Elena Cologni And Mother Art Collective' (2025) MLAC Museum, Sapienza Università di Roma, in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Mathias Botanical Garden (exhibition)
Cologni, E. (2025) (Un)Monuments of the Everyday: The Body of/at Work. In City, Public Space, and Body. The Embodied Experience of Urban Life. Routledge
Cologni, E. (2024). Percipience, embodiment, contamination(s). The artist as wound. Practicing a feminist care aesthetics. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 25(si1.25).
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2027) Matters of Care. Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds.
References.
Notes on Care (Soil Time), (artist book - activation) in Feminist Resonances between Text and Image: Visual Practices since the 1970s. Conference at University of Sussex, 15th May 2026, in collaboration with Museion, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano
'From The Home To The Planet. A Dialogue Between Elena Cologni And Mother Art Collective' (2025) MLAC Museum, Sapienza Università di Roma, in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Mathias Botanical Garden (exhibition)
Cologni, E. (2025) (Un)Monuments of the Everyday: The Body of/at Work. In City, Public Space, and Body. The Embodied Experience of Urban Life. Routledge
Cologni, E. (2024). Percipience, embodiment, contamination(s). The artist as wound. Practicing a feminist care aesthetics. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 25(si1.25).
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2027) Matters of Care. Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds.
Biography
Elena Cologni, PhD, MRSS, is an artist and Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Critical Practice at the Cambridge School of Art (Anglia Ruskin University), where she was Research and Innovation Lead and Postgraduate Research Coordinator (2019-2025). Cologni led the Research Excellence Framework submission in 2021 and is now working on the 2029 submission for UoA 32 Art and Design. Cologni studied at the Brera Academy of Art in Milan, Leeds University, and has a PhD from the University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, where she also pursued her postdoc. She held several academic positions at York Saint John University, the University of Cambridge, and ARTEZ University in the Netherlands. Cologni’s practice has been developed in partnership with, and presented at, academic and art contexts internationally, including: Brown University, Stanford University (US); Utrecht University (Netherlands); Venice
Biennale, Venice, GAMeC, Bergamo, MAMBO, Bologna, MLAC, Rome (Italy); Women’s Art Collection at Cambridge University,
CCA Glasgow, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, MK Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Tate Modern, (UK) and more. Her current project 'Towards a feminist care aesthetics' was funded by the Getty Research Institute (2023)
Biennale, Venice, GAMeC, Bergamo, MAMBO, Bologna, MLAC, Rome (Italy); Women’s Art Collection at Cambridge University,
CCA Glasgow, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, MK Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Tate Modern, (UK) and more. Her current project 'Towards a feminist care aesthetics' was funded by the Getty Research Institute (2023)