It takes place in the cinema theatre “Coliseum,” from 12th to 15th of September.

September 12, the opening day of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, marks the commencement of the symposium in the Coliseum Cinema – the main event of the public programme that is devoted to the topic of Immortality and that reveals intellectual context, in which the exhibitions exist. The subject of immortality will be examined from several perspectives: biological (genetics, bioengineering, ecology), social and philosophical. The symposium will include both traditional scholarly reports and popular-science presentations, open interviews and lecture performances.

Participants from different spheres – entrepreneurship, exact sciences, contemporary art – will discuss what makes technologically achievable immortality appealing and problematic and how representations of immortality influence modern culture.

This is a great opportunity:

• to return to space temporarily excluded from the city use;

• to get acquainted with paradoxical and fascinating ideas (together we will get into what anarchist utopias, necropolitics, transhumanism, apocalyptic cults, technological immortality, mind uploading, and many other things are);

• argue with the stunning speakers who are visiting Ekaterinburg for the first time (a rare moment when, for example, Konstantin Novoselov, Nobel Prize winner for the discovery of graphene, and Jens Hauser, curator and permanent selector of the Ars Electronica festival, get together in one place);

• experience new sensations at a performative lecture by anthropologist and scriptwriter Abu Farman and an open meeting with bio-art rebel Joe Davis;

The coming days are given to more detailed announcements. As of now, we cordially invite you to check the schedule, spread the word, and register!