On the first evening of winter a group of people made a pact: they would have 92 nights to sleep on a plan for what a contemporary hibernation could be. On the first day of spring they reassemble, to compare proposals and leave something behind.

Inspired by the hymn Say No!, more than 30 choirs and ensembles from across the world have created their own song about conscientious objection and desertion. All the contributed images and sounds form the material for a video creation, intertwined with a live performance by a huge international choir.

In this video installation, Els Dietvorst allows the residents of a small Irish fishing village to speak. The pressure caused by European fishing quotas threatens the village’s survival. Dietvorst sets the deeply human individual stories against the backdrop of the wider European political and economic situation.

The ethical standards with which we treat animals have been the subject of considerable research. But are animals also capable of political action? Philosopher and animal theorist Fahim Amir tells surprising stories about the role of animals in the history of humankind.

The Permeable Stage is a 10-hour long research event, dedicated to investigating the politics of sexuality and its proximal relations to privacy and the public sphere.

Four dirty, down and out, androgynous cowboys adopt the ritual poses from the Western genre. Gradually their actions come to resemble an odd kind of dance. Screening of a new film by the Danish artist Joachim Koester, with a live concert by Miles Whittaker (Demdike Stare).

Burning Ice - This conference brings together specialists from different disciplines who, through their scientific research, question that ‘promised land of transgenic crops’.

WoWmen! - selection of videos, films & installations by Nada Gambier, Nilbar Güres, Sharon Hayes, Marie Losier, Sükran Moral, Zeyno Pekünlü.

Are we just bystanders of ephemeral performances that wither away in the public space? What can art do, when it refuses the ethical purpose that government delegates its with, and stages disagreement that repoliticizes the public space? With a keynote lecture by Claire Bishop, author of the acclaimed book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship.

An architect talks about the city he has built. Gradually we realise that the city is imaginary. This is the story of Thing, a book and video film by artist Anouk De Clercq, about the memory of cities, about architectural ghosts of the past that infect the present, and about imaginary buildings.

The open conference announced in the Burning Ice brochure is to be replaced by a private meeting of the members of the network. This meeting will also take place at the Kaaitheater, but will not be open to the public. - How can we make the way we farm and what we eat more sustainable? That’s
the question occupying The New Food Frontier. You’ll find this network
of thinkers and doers both in the field and at the table; in farming,
horticultural and food businesses; and in research groups, at
universities, pressure groups etc.