Madness and Art: The Gentle Art of the m(ad)-Other in Feminist Theory in/and Praxis

Name: Madness and Art: The Gentle Art of the m(ad)-Other in Feminist Theory in/and Praxis
Start: 2026-03-06T09:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-03-08T13:00:00+01:00
Location: Hordaland kunstsenter

Schedule

Fri, 06 Mar, 2026 at 09:00 am to Sun, 08 Mar, 2026 at 01:00 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Hordaland kunstsenter | Bergen, HO

WS 2026: Madness and Art – Circle 4
Call for Participation
Winter Symposium 2026
Nordic Summer University
in collaboration with Hordaland Kunstsenter
Madness and Art:
The Gentle Art of the m(ad)-Other in Feminist Theory in/and Praxis
NSU Study Circle 4 An/Other\not-I/(m)\Other in Feminist Philosophy
invites you to participate in its Winter Symposium
6-8 March 2026, Bergen, Norway
Theory is not art, but some forms of it are.
But maybe art is theory-in-form, sensual and affective.
~ Judith Butler, quoting Bracha Ettinger
How to be an artist in a mad world, polarised and where value is economically defined? The speed of economic and military strategic interest has transformed the world into a non-place (Paul Virilio). To inhabit a place that is outside the realm of the human, is, according to Bracha Ettinger, a characteristic of modern everyday life. Life is an “odyssey into no-man’s land and, emanating from this, the exclusion from any possible form of connection.”(1)
Artists forego this inability of connection in a practise of gentleness: in which gentleness can be understood through the words of Anne Dufourmantelle, as follows:
“Gentleness is primarily an intelligence, one that carries life, that saves and enhances it. Because it demonstrates a relationship to the world that sublimates astonishment, possible violence, capture, and pure compliance out of fear, it may alter everything and every being. It is an understanding of the relationship with the other, and tenderness is the epitome of this relationship.” (2)
This Winter Symposium we invite artists, thinkers, writers, performers, academics and others, to share in their theory and/in practises to being present with oneself and the relationship with others, outside the binary relationships of belonging or not belonging, being and nothingness, hero and victim, perpetrator and advocate. We invite an exploration of the concept of ‘madness’ as a porous way towards the other as Other, as the impossible, the m/Other and mad-other, and all responses to not fitting in the contemporary polarized world. We invite the breaking points involved in the obsessions that the world makes it impossible to let go of, that speak to the necessity of connection.
Our circle is mostly concerned with feminist, queer and socially engaged art and text-based art, yet very open to other practices to share in this search for an answer to the obligations the world puts on us. We invite collaborations, laboratories, explorations and experimentation.
How can thinkers and artists embrace the concept of ‘madness’, which “is kept out of bounds as a nadir of meaninglessness, a breeding ground for unreal apparitions, chimeras, and sham.(…) When we listen carefully to expressions of madness, we hear a philosophical sound, a sense of having been seized by themes of vital importance that we know from the traditions of philosophy.”(3) How to reclaim the m(ad)-Otherness by the very act of creation?
“To have a future is to be vulnerable and unstable, a stranger to oneself. The self-mastering subject, in safeguarding himself again such vulnerability, instability, and strangeness, ends up safeguarding himself against the possibility of having a future, and of future possibilities to come. (…) … the unpredictability of the future depends on plurality.” (4)
Invitation
In this symposium we invite participants to share their own work and explorations around the theme of creating a future by being with yourself and the m(ad)/Other in a polarised world.
We are actively welcoming proposals for workshops, proposals for collaborative and interactive sessions, which may be accompanied by presentations and theoretical framing. We welcome personal experiences and artistic practices. We discourage formal and purely academic presentations. If you would like to (in addition) propose a reading of a specific work, we welcome you to share your suggestions.
Please send an email with your application, including a title of your workshop and a short description (2 paragraphs is sufficient) to: [email protected]
We will accept proposals on a rolling basis. Deadline: 31 January 2026. If you wish to attend without proposing a workshop/session, the deadline is 25 Februari 2026.
Practical Information
Unfortunately we will not be able to support participants with grants for travel and accommodation. However, all meals are included in the participation fee, as we have learned that sharing meals together is an essential part of the symposium experience we aim for.
The participation fee includes:
all meals during the conference, so: lunch and dinner
coffee breaks with snacks
NSU membership fee 2025 (25 euro)
We will be sharing information about low-cost accommodation in Bergen for participants, but participants are responsible to reserve their own accommodation.
Program starts in the morning of Friday 6th of March, so we hope people can arrive on the 5th of March. Departure on Sunday 8th of March after 13:00.
For students and self-employed people, we offer discounts. Please ask for the discount code to enter while booking. We will not return money, so please ask us for the code if you fall in the discount category (no proof needed).
Participation fees:
Regular fee: TBA
Discount (students & self-employed): TBA
As we wait to hear back from funding applications, fees will be communicated once we have more information. NSU is run fully by volunteers, so the fees will only be used to cover actual costs of meals.