Essay Club goes to the Sunshine Coast!

Join us for Essay Club no. 5 with Amanda Bennetts hosted offsite by our friends at UniSC Art Gallery, Sippy Downs.

Together with IMA’s Program Manager, Madeline Brewer, we’ll discuss Jean-Luc Nancy’s philosophical essay on surviving his heart transplant, L’Intrus (The Intruder) (2000). In the text, Nancy writes from within the experience of illness, describing the temporality, strangeness, and fragmentation that accompanied his major medical procedure. Nancy questions what it means to be ‘saved’ by something the body resists, reflects on medical management, and asks what is at stake in the deferral of death.

Bennetts will discuss the text in context to her exhibition Fragmented, divided—yet whole, which brings together recent work that uses time as both material and metric for understanding the body.

From 4pm to 6pm, prior to the event, UniSC Art Gallery will screen Claire Denis’ L’Intrus (The Intruder) (2004). Loosely inspired by Nancy’s essay, the film follows a man traversing geographic, familial, and bodily borders in search of his estranged son and a new heart. Less an adaptation than a conceptual parallel, Denis’ film shares Nancy’s preoccupation with self-alienation and the cost of survival.

Participants are encouraged to both read the text and watch the film. A guide to engaging with the material will be sent prior. We will email you the essay upon registration. If you are unable to attend the screening at UniSC Art Gallery, details on how to access Claire Denis’ L’Intrus (The Intruder) will be sent as well.

Join us for pizza and cold drinks. Everyone is welcome, but space is limited. Registration is essential. If you have any questions, please contact madeline@ima.org.au.

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Reading group, meets salon, meets networking drinks. Whether you’re a university student, emerging arts worker, artist, or someone who thinks critically about culture, there’s space at the table.

Each session, our well-read friends from the neighbourhood will select a text that’s shaping their ideas, conversations, and approaches to contemporary arts practice. We dig into the ideas together, with a focus on how global conversations might translate locally.