The Only Lasting Truth is Change: Voice, Seed, Brutality 2025
Providing speculative weather forecasts, diving into platform brutality, philosophising with gneiss, claiming the land, tracing the history of silk production, and dancing it all out, BEK invites you to join us in the November rain of Bergen for the symposium: The Only Lasting Truth is Change 2025.
BEK symposium
The Only Lasting Truth is Change: Voice, Seed, Brutality
21–23 November
Bergen, Norway
With contributions from: Shuruq Harb, Marwa Arsanios, Open-weather, Carol Stampone, Mihkkal Hætta, Geert Lovink, Touki & Rehana Zaman, Nasim Mashak, Omar Itani, Jenny Berger Myhre & Niklas Adam, DJ Daeva, Russell Haswell, Lesia Vasylchenko, soso brafield, Ameneh Solati.
Taking its title from Octavia Butler’s seminal sci-fi novel Parable of the Sower (1993), which has frightening similarities to the political realities of today, we are exploring aspects of change and alliances. These issues are portrayed in the novel through the experiences of protagonist Lauren Oya Olamina as she makes a dramatic escape to find new ways of living and creating communities.
The three symposium days in Bergen will present a programme looking into the potential of eco-social revolution through three notions: Voice, Seed, Brutality. We want to listen to voices that stand in support of Palestinian struggles for liberation. The fight against genocide, apartheid and colonialism connects to questions of what is change, who are the downtrodden, and what are the historical structures for the distribution of land and power. Voice holds storytelling and makes history heard; it is a medium that can transform isolation into connection, and thus can counter cultural extinction. The notion of Seed is inspired by Olamina’s “Earthseed” religion from Butler’s novel, a philosophy centred on the idea that ‘God is Change’. Here we aim to learn from indigenous storytelling, and the revolutionary potential in collective organising and alliance building connected to land use, cultivation and resistance. As people and culture migrate across borders, the experiences they carry become the seeds of future knowledge. And lastly, by critically reflecting on the Brutality of technofeudalism and platform economy, we want to address the need to reshuffle the power structures within internet technology. Brutality also reflects the violence of the polarised times we are living in, with increasing militarisation as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Only Lasting Truth is Change aims to be a thinking-in-process symposium, investigating how artistic practice and its methodologies are constantly changing in response to the shifting political, technological and ecological landscapes we live in.
The symposium is organised by BEK with support from Arts Council Norway, Fritt Ord Foundation, City of Bergen, Vestland County Council, KORO, Balansekunst and The Bergesen Foundation. This year will be the fourth edition of the symposium.
The project is part of New Perspectives for Action; a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.
BEK—Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts—is an interdisciplinary production centre for art and technology, established in 2000 in Bergen, Norway. BEK develops, produces and showcases projects at the intersection of contemporary art, technology and social critique. BEK organises theoretical and hands-on workshops for creative practitioners and offers advice and development support to artists and art organisations. In its studios and labs, BEK hosts residencies for artists, focusing on research and experimentation. Through its discursive public programme, BEK explores the social and political dimensions of technology in the field of contemporary art.
PROGRAM
Friday 21 November
18:00–01:00 Bergen Storsenter and Østre
Free entry. The programme will be streamed live on vimeo.com/bekdotno
Bergen Storsenter
18:00 Rats, and other downtrodden subjects: Performance by Omar Itani. NB! Not streamed
The tunnel by Lille Lungegårdsvannet, between Bergen Storsenter and Byparken
Østre
18:30 Doors open
19:00 Introduction by the curators
19:15 Gneiss: an extended live performance by Touki and Rehana Zaman with Daiyen Jone Castro NB! Not streamed
20:30 Sound of my luggage: Audiovisual performance by Nasim Mashak
21:00 Three notes on political animals: Audiovisual essay by Marwa Arsanios NB! Not streamed
22:00 Whispers of Reindeer Milk (2023): Film screening by Mihkkal Hætta
22:30 Phloem Sap: Concert by Jenny Berger Myhre and Niklas Adam
23:30 DJ set by DJ Daeva
Saturday 22 November
13:00–22:00 Bergen Assembly
Free entry. The programme will be streamed live on vimeo.com/bekdotno
13:00 Doors open and lunch
14:00 Introduction by the curators
14:15 How to Read a Storm: Presentations and conversation on satellite imagery by Open-weather & the Bjerknes Centre
15:15 Platform Brutality: Lecture by Geert Lovink
16:00 Chronesthetic Wound: Artist talk by Lesia Vasylchenko
17:00 Conversation between Marwa Arsanios, Shuruq Harb, and Omar Itani, lead by Sarah Lookofsky
18:15 On Change, Time and the Burnout Society: A performative lecture or participatory poem by Carol Stampone NB! Not streamed
19:45 Conflict Grains: Dinner by soso brafield. Sign up required. NB! Not streamed
Sunday 23 November
13:00–20:00 Østre
Free entry. The programme will be streamed live on vimeo.com/bekdotno
13:00 Doors open and lunch
14:00 Introduction by the curators
14:15 Wetlands Beyond Water: Performance lecture by Ameneh Solati
15:30 In the Presence of Absence: Video work by Shuruq Harb
16:00 Muorra (2024): Film screening and artist presentation by Mihkkal Hætta
17:00 Conversation between Shuruq Harb and Mihkkal Hætta
17:45 Live concert with workshop participants and Russell Haswell
The symposium is organised by BEK with support from Arts Council Norway, Fritt Ord Foundation, City of Bergen, Vestland County Council, KORO, Balansekunst and The Bergesen Foundation. This year will be the fourth edition of the symposium.
The project is part of New Perspectives for Action; a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.
Curators: Maya Økland, Åse Løvgren, and Morten Norbye Halvorsen
Production: Kaeto Sweeney, Susanna Antonsson and Thea Haug
Communications: Siren Løkaas and Emilie Blom Jamil
Graphic Design: Papa Kofi Yirrah