Conference addresses transgression and taboo – Times of Malta

The 5th edition of the nomadic conference Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science is taking place this year at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta. Conference founder and director DALILA HONORATO sits with Lara Zammit to discuss its themes and trajectories along with curator MARGERITA PUL,

The international conference Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science, taking place in Valletta this month, aims to provide an uncensored space for creative transformation in the merging of science and art.

Now in its fifth edition, the three-day conference founded by Dalila Honorato from the Ionian University will include theoretical and art practice presentations while focusing on questions about the nature of the forbidden and the aesthetics of liminality as expressed in art that uses or is inspired by technology and science.

The conference will be hosted by the Malta Society of Arts between September 27 and 29 and opens on September 26 with a concurrent art show and series of performances titled RawCookedRotten curated by Margerita Pul.

The art show is taking place in the MSA courtyard and basement vaults, which are rarely open to the public.

The conference is a place where artists, scientists, academics and people interested in the space where art and science meet can come together, says Honorato, speaking to Times of Malta.

It was created to host the meeting between these kinds of people, and I think we have been successful since the conference has created a space that actually brings in a lot of art practitioners, and not only academics. Also, it tends to treat rather curious topics.

Indeed, among the suggested topics for participants to tackle are those of biotechnology, body modification, evolution and even witchcraft, all nestled within the broader interface connecting science and art.

The conference is an opportunity to tackle out-of-the-box ideas, or some of those difficult issues that either seem not so serious to other conferences or are seen as just too weird, says Honorato.

This years edition will feature around 120 participants giving talks across two parallel sessions over three days.

Asked if there may be a transhumanistic motif underlying the conference, Honorato specified they are more concerned with the conceptual sphere of posthumanism than that of transhumanism.

While transhumanism favours the enhancement of the human through technology, posthumanism challenges the notion that humans are and always will be the only agents of the moral world, instead expanding this agency to include nonhuman subjects and objects.

Were more interested on focusing on the diversity and possibilities of the human and nonhuman [posthumanism], and not focus specifically on the improvement, or what is called functional improvement, of the human being [transhumanism], says Honorato.

We consider the danger of the idea of productivity when we talk about editing the human genome, for example. What is the danger of just becoming a homogenic thing that is called human? Who decides what is better?

There is an interest about what is different, what is weird- Dalila Honorato

Each of the topics tackled during the conference touches on taboo, transgression and transcendence, which Honorato envisions as co-existing in a cyclical fashion.

If we dont have a taboo, there is nothing to transgress, so its almost as if having a taboo is a teaser for transgression. Transcendence is almost like an adaptation of transgression: if transgression becomes mainstream or acceptable when the taboo loses its dynamic and the transgression becomes normalised then you probably have a way of transcending what was forbidden. That marks the start of a new taboo, so a new cycle begins, she explains.

Raw, cooked, rotten

Borrowing the concept of the culinary triangle introduced by Claude Lvi-Strauss, the art show RawCookedRotten highlights the interplay between

nature and culture, the transformative power of cooking and the importance of food safety and preservation.

With a programme taking place alongside the conference, visitors to the MSA basement vaults will be invited to explore the dimensions of food and reflect on the complex meanings and relationships between eating and being eaten. It also considers the microbiome that composes us, or of which we are composed.

Alongside the exhibition are also a series of performances featuring international participants, including from Greece, Japan and the United States.

Theres one work in the exhibition that is actually quite disgusting to look at, says Pul, highlighting how the forces of attraction and repulsion might be mutually at play across the exhibits.

It is a rather visceral collection of works, she ponders.

Disgust and attraction are closer than we actually suppose sometimes, says Honorato, and theres always a curiosity surrounding it.

There is an interest about what is different, what is weird, despite the fact that people might many times refuse it. With this exhibition, we are considering the fact that there is always something we can learn from pushing our own personal boundaries.

TTT2023 Malta is taking place between September 26-29 at the Malta Society of Arts, Valletta. See the full programme at artsmalta.org/event/taboo-transgression-transcendence-in-art-science-conference. The public (over 18 years of age) is welcome to attend. Entrance is free. To take part in the conference, register by sending an e-mail to TTT2023@eventbrite.com. Participation is free.

TTT2023 Malta involves the contributions of the Rewilding Cultures Consortium, the Hub of Art Laboratories and KONTEJNER bureau of contemporary art practice. Co-funded for the first time by the Ionian University and the European Union, TTT2023 Malta is being organised within the framework of the project Rewilding Cultures by the Feral Labs Network under Creative Europe, with further support by the Interactive Arts Laboratory of the Ionian University, Technoetic Arts: a Journal of Speculative Research published by Intellect and the hosting institution Malta Society of Arts.

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Conference addresses transgression and taboo - Times of Malta