Fisher Center LAB Biennial
The Belly is a Garden
A lecture performance by Vivien Sansour
Dramaturgy by Adrienne Truscott
October 14–16, 2022
Seed keeper and artist Vivien Sansour invites us to join her in a conversation and lecture performance that unfolds over a walk through the Bard Farm and the wild landscape that surrounds it. As we walk, we will study the diversity of plants growing there and consider how we share the world and how we interact with it. How does one plot of land produce such a multitude of color and variety? How do these varieties interact with each other to support and enhance their blossoming? We will explore our own origins as seeds, accompanied by a multitude of other living beings so different from us yet complimentary.
Please wear walking shoes and rain gear if necessary.
Vivien Sansour
Vivien Sansour is an artist, researcher, and writer. She uses installations, images, sketches, film, soil, seeds, and plants to enliven old cultural tales in contemporary presentations and to advocate for seed conservation and the protection of agrobiodiversity as a cultural/political act. Vivien founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library as part of this work with local farmers and has been showcased internationally, including at the Chicago Architecture Biennale, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, Berlinale, Istanbul Biennale, Fotoindustria, and the Venice Art Biennale. An enthusiastic cook, Vivien works to bring threatened varieties “back to the dinner table to become part of our living culture rather than a relic of the past.” This work has led her to collaborate with award-winning chefs, including Anthony Bourdain and Sammi Tamimi. A former Harvard University Fellow, Vivien is currently teaching at Bard College where she is developing a course on human and nature design in the Hudson Valley.
Digital Program
Read the Program
Common Ground: An international festival on the politics of land and food
Curated by Tania El Khoury and Gideon Lester
In association with the OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard (CHRA)
The Fisher Center LAB Biennial is a thematic festival that invites and commissions artists to create new works that grapple with some of the most pressing questions of our time. The 2022-23 edition, Common Ground, is a year-long international program focusing on the politics of land and food and taking place on four continents. We have commissioned new works from artists whose practices engage with food sovereignty, climate change, and land rights. Together invite you to join them in imagining a more equitable, sustainable, healthful, and delicious future.
Common Ground includes two four-day festivals at and around the Fisher Center—one at harvest time (October 13–16, 2022) and one in the growing season (May 4–7, 2023).
