Cosmic Awe

KOSMICA Institute Presents: Cosmic Awe
A workshop in Berlin curated by Virginia Vigliar with Chris Paxton & Nahum

For millennia, the cosmos has been a source of guidance, projection, and the blank canvas where we could imagine new worlds here on Earth. Contemplating the stars and the sun's position through time has created an awareness of the universe in which we live. It has given birth to cultural expressions that have helped us make sense of our own existences.

With the advent of space technologies, rockets, robots, and orbiting machines, a new era has begun, where for many, space seems merely a critical territory to be colonised and profited from. As we become accustomed to the visions of colonies in space and the commercialisation of space resources, we ask for a moment of pause.

This workshop questions this way of exploiting the universe and invites participants to reflect on our original connection to it. Through sensory experiences and writing, participants will embark on a journey to decolonise/de-extractivise our connection to the sky and rediscover our cosmic ancestry.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to delve into the depths of our cosmic past and the possibilities of our cosmic future. Let's journey together to reconnect with the universe in a profound and meaningful way.

Your senses will be stimulated: smell, vision, sound, taste, and touch.

Virginia Vigliar

Virginia is a writer, curator, and researcher questioning current paradigms through poetic lens. Her work highlights the revolutionary character and power of creativity, inner knowledge, and art, focusing on deconditioning through storytelling. Over the past 15 years, she has passionately explored gender, feminism, and social justice as an activist, journalist, writer, and editor. Her writing has been featured in Atmos, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The New York Times, Vice, Let's Explore Magazine, World of Topia, and various notebooks worldwide. WAVES, her Substack publication explores mythology, feminism, and ecology, through movement, writing, and other sensory experiences. She draws inspiration from nature and mystics and aims to illuminate the power of creativity, inner knowledge, and art in our society.

Chris Paxton

Chris Paxton’s work begins with the culinary, expanding into photography, video, sound, installation and happenings to host immersive dining experiences that push beyond the dish on the table. These communal and collaborative meals are a medium with which to nourish dreams, collective desires and more-than-human worlds. His cooking is rooted in a connection with cyclical time and the specificities of place, making use of local and seasonal produce as well as foraged foods.