Going back in history to discover and expose lost and oppressed ontologies can be an emancipatory task, wherein connections made invisible, perspectives silenced, and knowledge and skills obscured from spreading can be retrieved, re-lived, and renewed. Ancestral knowledge can become a way of envisioning our relationship to future ancestors, thereby connecting past, present, and future in times of ecological crisis. But going back and enchanting history is also a task that is often exercised by the (far)-right, with destructive and threatful consequences for those othered by their beliefs. If narrations of history are social constructs, how can we understand and unravel the intertwined history between nature, socio-economic and cultural development, and fossil fuels in an empowering manner?

[DIS]ENTANGLE believes that the journey towards a just transition requires the unmaking and remaking of our social worlds. Through collaborative-research and a workshop, the project will bring together participants to think through the relationship between fossil fuels, progress, and nature from various historical and ideological standpoints. Our aim is to enliven histories of art and political ecology. In reimagining these narratives, [DIS]ENTANGLE seeks to find ways of making visible different histories and their impact on art workers by linking dominant narratives with individual experiences.

Tatjana Söding and guests present their expanded timelines and research.