“Citing Bar” is a platform exploring feminist environmental humanities. As a Mandarin homophone for “drinking”, the title “citing” also acts as a ritual of nurturing both the body and the holistic connection to nature. Additionally it pays homage to the evolving concept of the “politics of citation” aligning the core spirit of the project, that is, to acknowledge origins, borders and ordeals, thereby fostering a sense of solidarity for the purpose of enabling the prosperity of land, the environment, human and more-than-human alike.
While stimulating cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations, “Citing Bar” aims to broaden the spectrum of knowledge, ecological wisdom and worldviews, channeling transformative energy into this planet that is bombarded by multiple crises and conflicts. In addition to exhibition spaces, the venue featured a library for reading and a tea-drinking section for relaxation; meanwhile, participatory events including talks, screenings, writing, reportage and publications were organized to continually raise awareness about care and justice.
In 2023, “Citing Bar” featured four sub-projects at Solid Art in Taipei, Taiwan, all revolving around the closely intertwined concepts of rest, healing, immigration, crip ecologies and climate justice. This publication serves as a summary of the various explorations and learnings throughout the four seasons of the year. Presented in the form of a newspaper to facilitate the flow of information, it also crystallizes as an invitation and an end-of-year blessing to the world.
In this event, Anna-Kaisa Koski, co-founders of PUNOS, one of Citing Bar’s partners, will also share their collaborative art practices on climate and ecology.
💧 Special Guest: Anna-Kaisa Koski, cofounder of Punos (FI)
Punos Arts & Research is a Helsinki-based collective founded by curator-researchers Anna-Kaisa Koski and Ki Nurmenniemi in 2020. Punos acts in the area that lies between the worlds of academic research and the arts: weaving, translating and transmitting ideas and discussions that lead towards more just and socio-ecologically sustainable worlds.
Punos collective seeks to drive social change within the cultural sector through art, research, and training. For just sustainability transformations to thoroughly permeate societies, new ideas, stories and leaps of imagination will be needed. Hence the meaningful processing and understanding of climate change, loss of biodiversity and other ecological threats will require cultural research approaches and creative methods.
Punos work in close cooperation with artists and our interest lies in the importance of imagination in building livable, loveable, and sustainable futures. Our collaboration with curator Hung-Fei Wu and the Citing Bar programme has started out from shared interest in whose voices are heard, encouraged, circulated, and cited in discussions where the climate and ecological crises and responses to them are being negotiated.
