Of Gaia and Ouranos : Public Programme
Roger Cremers and Doina Kraal
16 December 2023

There is always imagination

Looiersgracht 60 and Radical Reversibility are pleased to announce a guided tour and panel discussion on Saturday December 16 in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Of Gaia and Ouranos’. The work in the exhibition reanimates lost objects and techniques and examines their ability to communicate questions of material and imaginative knowledge.

To accompany the themes of the exhibition, the public programme will present a panel discussion with the artists, Prof. dr. Wouter Hanegraaff, and Joyce Pijnenburg. Starting from the premise that imagination is essential for our ability to understand reality in all its dimensions, the panel will discuss the importance of imagination and its relationship to artistic practice.

Based on Hanegraaf's interpretation of the Hermetica, they will have a conversation about imagination as an indispensable mediator between the intellect and the senses. Also following Pijnenburg’s PhD rresearrch into 16th-century philosopher Giordano Bruno, the discussion will also question to what extent did imagination play a role in Bruno's cosmological theories? What is the role of imagination concerning the interchange between the sciences and the inexplicable or the mysterious?

Wouter Hanegraaff is a professor of the History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam and has served as the first president of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Joyce Pijnenburg is a researcher, thinker, and program maker with a special focus on the history of philosophy and the mystical. Pijnenburg has worked at the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica and in the departments of Hermetic Philosophy and Religious Studies (UvA) and is the initiator of de Baaierd, a public programming platform for literary practice.

Saturday, 16 December

16:00 - 16:30, Guided Tour with the artists and curators, Taco Hidde Bakker and Frank van der Stok

17:00 - 18:00, Panel Discussion with the artists, Wouter Hanegraaff and Joyce Pijnenburg

Please RSVP if you would like to join us on Saturday December 16th. Email us at info@looiersgracht60.org.