Lesung | Gespräch:Marina Naprushkina & Hannah Wallenfels; conversation pieces

Sat, Aug. 8, 2026
3:00 p.m.
Talk

Approx. 60 minutes

Conversation Pieces

Theconversation piecesseries takes everyday technologies as its starting point and situates them within the context of the swimming pool. Each installment is based on a text that provides the thematic framework and serves as a common point of reference. Guests are invited to explore the topic from artistic, theoretical, or technological perspectives and to share their thoughts or their own work in discussion. 

What does it mean to “hold”—both as a technological and a cultural practice? And what alternative narratives about technology emerge when we stop thinking of it as a tool of conquest? The author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote primarily science fiction and political utopias, proposing that we conceive of human history not as a heroic narrative, but as the story of what we carry, what we collect, preserve, and pass on. The “Carry-Bag Theory of Fiction”(1986) forms the starting point for a feminist alternative to the dominant narrative of the history of technology. Marina Naprushkina and Hannah Wallenfels will engage in a conversation—moderated by Anna-Lena Panter—exploring questions related to infrastructure, care work, and the connection between speculative feminisms and the political potential of science fiction.

Theconversation series “conversation pieces” iscurated by Anna-Lena Panter as part of the transmediale x Tropez collaboration.

The discussions will be held in German. 

Photo:Marina Naprushkina, *Mama, how much longer?* video still, 2025, courtesy of the artist

About the Curators

transmedialeis an annual festival and a space for critical reflection on art and technology. The annual festival brings together transdisciplinary communities and diverse audiences with an interest in digital cultures to develop new perspectives on our technological age. The transmediale festival takes place annually in late January and forms the core of the organization’s program. Beyond the annual event, transmediale is a cross-disciplinary, dynamic platform with a vibrant community and a strong network that enables year-round activities, including publications, studio events, and a residency program. In 2027, the 40th edition of transmediale will take place.

https://transmediale.de/en

Anna-Lena Panter organizes, curates, and edits projects between Berlin and Vienna. Since 2020, she has held various roles at the transmediale festival in Berlin. She currently coordinates the festival program and is responsible for transmediale’s year-round studio activities and residencies. With a background in publishing, she organizes exhibitions, discussion forums, and gatherings.

Marina Naprushkinais an interdisciplinary artist. She develops networks, structures, and spaces based on self-organization and works in both institutional and independent contexts. In 2007, she founded the Office for Anti-Propaganda, a platform for the critical examination of power relations and the violence embedded in nation-state structures. Naprushkina explores possibilities and forms of resilience, feminist narratives, and care networks, informed by intersectional and feminist critique. Since 2013, she has been a co-founder of the Initiative Neue Nachbarschaft/Moabit, which is dedicated to building a community of solidarity between people with and without migration experiences.

Hannah Wallenfelsexplores, in various contexts, who owns thought and who is considered a thinker. At the intersection of the history of philosophy and feminist theory, she is currently investigating how authorship and authority emerge and shift, and teaches on this topic at various universities. As a co-founder of the theory collective diffrakt, she also develops collective formats that go beyond the traditional lecture: event series, workshops, and reading groups—on topics such as care work, cyberfeminism, canon criticism, and science fiction.