Spain:
- 4th-6th October: Metamofosis: Exploring queer ecology and degrowth
https://metamorfosisbcn.cargo.site/
On the 4th, 5th and 6th of October, monsters, fairies, holobionts, witches and other mythological creatures among which queers and degrowthers (and allies) gathered in the liberated valley of Can Masdeu, an ecosocial regenerative project in the rurban margin of Barcelona (Catalunya). The event gathered activists, artists and practitioners from different fields of intersection between sciences, arts and politics. The goal was to learn together through non-ortodox methodologies and experimental practices, and to explore the concept of queer ecology as a political philosophy and vessel for action.
Queer ecology is the idea that ecology as a discipline and a practice is subject to the same heteropatriarchal bias that oppresses queer humans. As a political analysis, it consists of applying the same lenses and concepts of queer theory (fluidity, queerness, the erotic as the liberatory, kin-making …) to the struggle for environmental justice and for healing the relationship between human and non-human nature. Some of the strands that we explored in the festival are decoloniality, solarpunk, artivism, mutispecies justice, degrowth and movement alliances.
Metamorfosis is a space to embody rather than traditionally teach these ideas. For this reason, participants came together in cocreation, ritual ceremonies, dance, sharing and holding space for the hard emotions that inevitably emerge in the present historical moment, self-critique, community building, practices of active solidarity, learning and unlearning from each other, and dreaming.