A panel with A k u z u r u (Performance Artist) and Miguel Keerveld (Artist and Curator). Moderated by Julián Gonzalez (Columbia University).

Shamanism, Environmental Preservation, and Collective Healing: A Conversation with A k u z u r u and Miguel Keerveld

In the past decade, artists, curators, and art historians have been increasingly exploring performative and installation work tied to spiritual manifestations. The retrieval of Indigenous and Afro-Diasporic belief systems and cosmogonies has been at the heart of this discussion as the art world becomes more decolonized, de-centered, and polyphonic. This revamped spiritual turn in the arts signals an interest in building new, interconnected epistemologies with healing practices as a central source of concern. This conversation, with two leading figures in the Caribbean art world, will highlight how ritualistic and collective acts can provide us with tools to build more sustainable relationships with nature and with each other.

Image Credit: A k u z u r u – Earthology India : Akt 3 Big Banyan Tree- India 2008