Out now: The Against Nature Journal
A new arts and human rights magazine
Get issue #1 of The Against Nature Journal
Published by Council
Edited by Aimar Arriola and Grégory Castéra with Giulia Tognon
As of summer 2020, the “restoration of natural order” is back on the agenda of many political movements across the world, and non-normative sexual orientations and behaviors are still condemned to imprisonment, corporal punishment, and even the death penalty in over seventy countries.
The Against Nature Journal is a new biannual arts and human rights magazine exploring “crime against nature” laws and their legacies, in print, in person and online. Authors and readers from law, activism, social sciences, and the arts are brought together to foster dialogue on sexual and reproductive rights and rethink nature anew.
Issue #1 outlines the intersections between legislation, human rights activism, and spirituality. We celebrate the magical legacy of the late writer Binyavanga Wainaina with his first piece of fiction, accompanied by an essay on his lifework by Amatesiro Dore. The issue also includes legal scholar Vivek Divan’s commentary on a seminal verdict in the history of “crime against nature” laws from India, essays on non-normative approaches to spirituality and religion by Martti Nissinen and Linn Marie Tonstad, poetry by Abu Nuwas and Chekwube Danladi, an inspiring text on the moral authority of “nature” by science historian Lorraine Daston, images from the colonial period in Vietnam by Danh Vo, and columns on recent events in Barbados, Brazil and Abya Yala, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, and Poland covered by activists, writers, organizers Donnya Piggott, Viviane Vergueiro, Pawan Dhall, Kari Mugo, Dayna Ash, Niza, Naoufal Bouzid and Eliel Jones.
The Against Nature Journal
146 mm x 234 mm
144 pages
Texts in English
Published by Council
www.council.art
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Founded in 2013 by Grégory Castéra and Sandra Terdjman in Paris, Council is an art organization devoted to fostering better understanding of societal issues. It was founded with the conviction that art produces meaningful social change and that its influence can be extended to other domains. Council develops a long-term artistic program by partnering with thinkers and makers from different fields of action and expertise. Council commissions artworks, curates exhibitions, designs assemblies, and facilitates educational programs. Additionally, the fellowship program AFIELD recognizes artists and cultural practitioners who develop exemplary initiatives that benefit society. The entire program addresses issues related to health and care, gender equality, ecology, collective practices and social innovation.
2020 projects include a new postmaster on collective practices (Collective Practices Research Course, Royal Institute of Arts, Stockholm), an exhibition of experimental non-fiction films taking place at the seashore (Shoreline Movements, curated with Erika Balsom for Taipei Biennial, October 24, 2020 to February 28, 2021) and the announcement of three new AFIELD Fellows (December 6, 2020).
