Sun 18 May
16:00–17:00
TOWARDS A MULTISPECIES POLITICAL ECOLOGY — Panel discussion with Bonnie Chopard, Erno Eskens, and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer

The current economic system views more-than-human life as a collection of raw materials that can be harvested and depleted to ensure continuous economic growth. The predominant legal systems that were developed simultaneously operate within the same logic, making a clear distinction between the human and the more-than-human world. Altogether this has led to the situation we are currently facing, in which the rapid depletion of life forms and unprecedented biodiversity loss is manifesting before our eyes. This critical situation requires new ways of organising not only our thoughts and material relations but also our political and judicial systems. In line with this, in The Parliament of Things, Bruno Latour argues for a different type of politics, a form of politics in which more-than-human life has a seat at the political table. 

Recently, the Zoönomic Institute has taken these points to heart through devising an organisational model in which the interests of the ecosystem an organisation participates in are actively represented in the decision making process. This happens through the installment of a so called Speaker for the Living, who listens to and translates the interests of the non-human life surrounding the organisation. In his recent book Het Zoölogisch Manifest (The Zoological Manifesto), Erno Eskens pleads to go one step further through granting all forms of non-human life civil rights, and as such elevating them to a position equal to that of humans. Could this pave the way for forms of multispecies justice? 

On 18 May, Bonnie Chopard (Speaker for the Living at Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen), Klaas Kuijtenbrouwer (Director of the Zoönomic Institute) and Erno Eskens will engage in discussion with one another regarding the ways in which they, within their own respective practices, work on the (re)presentation of non-human life in both the political and judicial domain, and how they work on achieving multispecies justice.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
⌀ Bonnie Chopard is a landscape architect and a Speaker for the Living at Kunstfort Vijfhuizen. Speakers for the Living are an integral part of the Zoöp, an organizational model that aims to actively include the interests of the ecosystems the organisation participates in within its decision making. Within this model, the Speaker for the Living represents and translates the interests of the more-than-human life in the operational sphere of the Zoöp.
⌀ Erno Eskens is a Dutch philosopher and publisher working on legal personhood for animals and other living beings. Recently, Eskens has pubished Het Zoölogisch Manifest, a manifesto that pleads to grant every form of life legal rights in order to instigate a zoölogical revolution.
⌀ Klaas Kuitenbrouwer is the director of the Zoönomic Institute and a senior researcher in regenerative practices at het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, where he initiated the development of the Zoöp model. He studied history but has always worked at the intersections of art, design, technology and ecology. In his work he is drawn to the frictions between different knowledge practices: technological, artistic, legal, organisational, scientific, and more-than-human.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
⌀ Date: Sunday 18 May 2025
⌀ Doors open: 15:30 – 16:00
⌀ Start and duration panel discussion: 16:00 – 17:00
⌀ Admission: €5,00 (panel discussion), €10,00 (panel discussion + exhibition)
⌀ Language: English
⌀ Location: RADIUS Water Tower, Kalverbos 22
⌀ Note that the location is not wheelchair accessible. Please get in contact with us to discuss alternative ways to allow your participation.