On July 23rd at 7pm ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe Germany held another online screening of Symbiotic Earth as part of its Terrestrial University, an experimental lecture series offered in the context of the exhibition Critical Zones – Observatories for Earthly Politics. Over the same weekend there were guided tours of the exhibit and a workshop.

You can learn more about the screening on the Terrestrial University website.  The website describes the impact of Margulis’ work this way:

Darwin teaches us: Life is a struggle for survival. Lynn Margulis teaches us: Life is symbiosis. In this complex system, everything and everybody is connected and stands in equal position to one another.

In the 1960s, the young American evolutionary theorist and biologist Lynn Margulis expressed an unpopular thought on the theory of evolution: she presented a phenomenon called symbiosis, i.e. the coexistence of living beings of different kinds for mutual benefit, as a key element of evolution. At that time, the principle of symbiosis was not of primary consideration, but genetic mutations, selection and struggle. Margulis stuck to her view and introduced the narrative of a symbiotic system in which bacteria combine to create cells from which all organisms are created. They form the complex, living surface of the Earth.

Symbiotic Earth was first screened by ZKM in May 2020 as part of their opening festival for the Critical Zones Exhibit which is on view through February 28, 2021. Lynn Margulis is an important part of the exhibit, which includes archival videos of Margulis curated by Symbiotic Earth filmmaker John Feldman and Gaian Systems: Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthroposene author Bruce Clarke. The exhibit was curated by philosopher, anthropologist, sociologist Bruno Latour and post-conceptual artist Peter Weibel.