PLURIversity: “Gender: Human” by Shieko Reto at the Nordic Culture Point

A learning-by-doing platform which brings together a plurality of individuals, cultures and traditions, the PLURIversity cross-seeds artistic, P2P and social imaginaries to develop new pedagogies, skills and solutions for a diverse, pluricultural future.

Forming a part of the faculty of PLURIculture, this event includes a presentation of new art work by the Malaysian artist Shieko Reto under the title “Gender: Human” in the prominent window of Nordic Culture Point in Kaisaniemi. Shieko is the Artists at Risk resident at Safe Haven Helsinki in 2017.

This afternoon will include a short talk by Ivor Stodolsky on the notion of “pluriculturalism”, and an introduction to the PLURIversity by Marita Muukkonen.

Shieko Reto is a visual artist from Kuala Lumpur, whose work often addresses trans- and cross-cultural phenomena. Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen are Co-Founding Co-Directors of Perpetuum Mobile: www.PerpetualMobile.org

PROGRAMME:
Time: 16:00
Location: The Nordic Culture Point
Kaisaniemenkatu 9, Helsinki
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1708561566125231/

Part 1.

Pluriculturalism

A short introductory talk by

Ivor Stodolsky, curator and field philosopher
Co-Founding Director of Perpetuum Mobile

In an age once again torn between false dichotomy of “purity” and “mixture”, what are the options for the reality of hybrid human cultures? Must we dissolve into the goulash of the American “melting pot”? Or should we allow the Bantustan-ization of cultures, like in the old London or New York, with Little Italies, China Towns and segregated Pakistani, Indian, Roma and Jewish communities? Or must we live under the French Enlightenment legacy of rationalist “universalism” with all its flattening Eurocentric subtexts and colonial realities? Or must we be choked by the Germano-Nordic-Eastern European version of “consensus”: the fearful hiding of difference from the powerful and oppressive conformism of the majority? Is there not a new form of plural culture that we can formulate in the 21st century? In the face of threats, fears and hatreds of old, pluriculturalism offers potentials for a new discourse.

Part 2.

An introductory word  to Shieka Reto’s work for PLURIculture, a faculty of the PLURIversity

Marita Muukkonen, curator and writer
Co-founding director of Perpetuum Mobile.

This talk will give a brief introduction to Shieko Reto’s artwork in the window of the Nordic Culture Point at Kaisaniemi and its context. This work is being carried out as part of the faculty of PLURIculture of the PLURIversity (www.pluriversity.net).

Part 3.

Presentation of her work by the artist

Shieka Reto

Shieko Reto is a visual artist from Kuala Lumpur, whose work often addresses the concerns of trans- and cross-cultural phenomena. Her work has been part of international exhibitions, including the Singapore Biennial.

The artist will show and discuss her work in an open format, followed by a Q&A.

The PLURIversity is a Perpetuum Mobilezation

www.PerpetualMobile.org