🌿 What would the world look like if we learned to think like plants? 🌿
The three-day international symposium Free Radicals invites you to an interdisciplinary dialogue on how cultural and artistic practices can contribute to protecting biodiversity, nurturing reciprocal relationships, and fostering care across species. Guests from the Czech Republic and abroad include voices from art, design, humanities, and natural sciences.

The programme explores where plant biodiversity meets contemporary art and culture, and presents projects and approaches that connect humans and nature in new, sensitive ways.

~ Programme ~

Friday 23 May
Planeta Za
10:00 INTRO & KEYNOTE | (Alexandra Střelcová, Uriel Orlow)
11:00 PANEL | Art as a Vehicle for Social Change with Uxío Novo Rey & Branca Novoneyra (Fundación Uxío Novoneyra), Beatriz Manteigas & Antonio Nunes (Quinta das Relvas), Lilit Stepanyan (Today Art Initiative), Bálint Antal & Fruzsina Deszi (Pro Progressione), Hanna Grześkiewicz & Yasemin Keskintepe (Sonic Tomorrow)
14:00 WORKSHOP | Feral Ecologies with Ivana Papić & Gaja Mežnarić Osole (Krater Collective)
16:00 READING SESSION | Poetry as a Form of Resistance with Uxío Novo Rey & Branca Novoneyra (Fundación Uxío Novoneyra, Spain). Moderated by Ondřej Lipár.

Saturday, 24 May
Goethe Institut Prag
10.00 PANEL | Interdisciplinarity as a Method with Marina Guzzo (Federal University of São Paulo), Denise Bianco (Central Saint Martins), Tara Lasrado (arvae.ch)
11.30 PANEL | Green Gold: Plants in the Name of Profit with Kenza Benabderrazik (ETH Zurich), Gaja Mežnarić Osole (Krater Collective), Ivana Papić, Julien Antih (University of Montpellier / Haenke). Moderated by Tereza Havlínková

Planeta Za
14.00 WORKSHOP | Material Cultures with Adam Kvaček
14.00 WORKSHOP | Grow Your Own Artwork with Lilit Stepanyan
16.00 READING SESSION | Seed Sovereignty with Kenza Benabderazzik (ETH Zurich) and Tara Lasrado (arvae.ch)
18.00 FILM EVENING | Staying with the Plants (works by Uriel Orlow, Anežka Horová & Klára Trsková, Nour Ouayda, Agnieszka Polska, Ondřej Vavrečka)

Sunday, 25 May
Divoká Šárka
15:00 LARP | Plot Complot with David Přilučík, Andrea Hubert (in collaboration with Divoká Šárka is alive)
Events will unfurl across the city across several locations in Prague – including Planeta Za, the Goethe-Institut Prague, and the Divoká Šárka natural reserve.

The event marks the official launch of Free Radicals, a two-year European project exploring how plant biodiversity can be meaningfully integrated into cultural and artistic practices. Coordinated by the interdisciplinary research studio Haenke, in collaboration with partner organisations across Europe.

🌱 www.freeradicals.space

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.