In this public guest lecture, Marisol Marini (University of São Paulo) will discuss and illuminate the foundations that led to the development of the idea of the Common Body as a diagnostic and fabulative tool in the face of socio-environmental conflicts.
The proposition of the Common Body aims to highlight the fact that body and territory are crossed by the same vulnerabilities and therefore can constitute a force of resistance and solidarity. It is a conceptual, methodological tool and an epistemological practice to deal with these shared vulnerabilities, seeking paths and forms of solidarity to deal with exposure to pollution, contamination, climate crises and exploitations of the most diverse kinds, faced by bodies at different scales.
It is about extrapolating the body to more-than-human realities and entities, suggesting a non-anthropocentric approach to Health, forms of immunization that go beyond the limits of the skin, extrapolating the value of the body as an analytical category to other more-than-human entities, including the cosmos, the planet, ecosystems and various other living beings.
The aim is to highlight the common ground regarding the inevitable link between human and ecosystem health, which challenges reductionist and anthropocentric strategies in health care.
Image: Microplastics on the coast of São Paulo, created by Marisol Marini.
For this session, materials are available for preparation beforehand (preparation is not mandatory to join the session!):
The Video “Corpos Instáveis (Unstable Bodies)”, created by Marisol Marini,
available here.
And the papers (available upon request):
“The role of the imagination in the development of artificial hearts: towards an understanding of embodied and shared imagination”, authored by Marisol Marini
and
“Multiplicity and ontological instability in nonhuman hearts”, authored by Marisol Marini, Marko Monteiro and Jenny Slatman
The session is moderated by Elisabeth Luggauer.
Everybody is very welcome!
Thursday, 15 January 2026
10:00 – 11:30 am, (s.t.!)
Hybrid
@ Institute for European Ethnology (IfEE), HU Berlin, room 408 (accessible elevator available)
& on Zoom (for the link & the optional reading, please contact: elisabeth.luggauer@hu-berlin.de)