Non-human animals are exploited across all areas of life, including food production, medicine, and entertainment. Currently, animal agriculture accounts for over 75% of all arable land on Earth and is one of the leading causes of deforestation, while over 90% of livestock are raised in intensive industrial-scale production units, confined to small spaces and cages often without ever seeing the light of day. At the same time, wild animals face extinction and perish in vast numbers in wildfires and as casualties of overfishing, hunting and habitat loss. In short, the use and abuse of non-human animals is one of the most important issues of our time. Yet the ethical problems emerging from these exploitative systems remain largely invisible to the wider public.
Organised in conversation with the exhibition Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives, this symposium addresses key questions concerning the role of non-human animals in contemporary society. These include how legal frameworks enable the exploitation of animals, how violence against animals is connected to violence against humans, and how unregulated animal labour produces value in capitalism. The symposium’s speakers propose ways to create fairer legal frameworks and forms of governance, and discuss strategies for multispecies justice.
Speakers include: Rimona Afana, Charlotte Blattner, Katerina Gregos, Terike Haapoja, Tiziana Pers and Richard Twine. Remote contributors include Jo-Anne McArthur, Shay Salehi, Syl Ko and Dinesh Wadiwel. The moderators are Federica Timeto, Gizem Haspolat and Pablo P. Castello.
The Symposium is curated by Terike Haapoja and stems from her long-term research on capitalism’s reliance on animal exploitation and animalisation, which she has termed “Animal Capitalism”. Haapoja is a Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist. Her work focuses on animal rights and the potential for harmonious co-existence between species. She is one of the participating artists in Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Animals.
The Symposium will also include a presentation of David Brooks’ book, Coralographies: the 7,500-year-old Coral Animalesque, in collaboration with the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, as well as the work of the NGO A PROMISE TO ANIMALS in advancing animal protection and rights.
The Symposium will be conducted in English, with interpretation provided in Greek.
VIEW BROCHURECurated by Terike Haapoja
PROGRAMME
SATURDAY 28/3
12:00 Introductory talk Katerina Gregos 20′
12:20 Opening statement Terike Haapoja 10′
Session 1: Visibilising the invisibilised 80′
12:30 Video insert Jo-Anne McArthur 15′
12:45 Lecture Richard Twine 35′
13:20 Q&A Moderator Gizem Haspolat 20′
13:40 Video insert Shay Salehi 10′
14:00 Break [Shay Salehi, Scar Tissue, 2024]
Session 2: Animal jurisprudence and interspecies governance 90′
14:45 Lecture Charlotte Blattner 35′
15:20 Q&A Moderator Pablo P. Castello 20′
15:40 Live insert Tiziana Pers 10′
15:50 Break 45′
Session 3: Our moral responsibility 80′
16:40 Video insert Syl Ko 15′
16:55 Keynote lecture Rimona Afana 35′
17:30 Q&A Moderator Federica Timeto 20′
17:50 Art insert: Dominique Knowles, Tahlequah, 2019 12′
18:00 End
SUNDAY 29/3
Parallel programme
12:30-14:30 Closed workshop “Challenging Animal Captivity” with Rimona Afana
15:00 Book presentation Coralographies, David Brooks & Anastasia Miliou 30′
15:30 Book presentation Considering Animals: An Encyclopaedia of Interspecies Understanding, Katerina Gregos & ioLi Tzanetaki (Eds.) 10′
15:40 Presentation A Promise to Animals NGO 30′
Session 4: Animals and politics: co-resistance 100′
16:30 Welcome words Katerina Gregos 10′
16:40 Video insert Dinesh Wadiwel 15′
16:55 Lecture Terike Haapoja 35′
17:30 Roundtable 60′
Participants:
Rimona Afana
Richard Twine
Charlotte Blattner
Federica Timeto
Gizem Haspolat
Tiziana Pers
Pablo P. Castello
Moderator: Terike Haapoja
18:30 End
Workshop “Challenging Animal Captivity”
List of participants
Rimona Afana — Romanian-Palestinian researcher, artist, and activist
Charlotte Blattner — Associate Professor of Public and Environmental Law, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
David Brooks — Visual artist
Pablo P. Castello — Research Fellow, Animal Law Programme, University of Denver, USA
Katerina Gregos — Artistic Director, EMΣT, recipient of the 2025 Culture Animals Foundation Nancy Regan Prize | Curator of the exhibition Why Look At Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives
Terike Haapoja — Visual artist and researcher
Gizem Haspolat — Cultural anthropologist
Dominique Knowles — Visual artist
Syl Ko — Philosopher, author, and independent researcher
Jo-Anne McArthur — Photographer, photo editor, and founder of the organization We Animals
Anastasia Miliou — Marine biologist and Scientific Director, Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, Greece
Tiziana Pers — Visual artist and activist | Co-founder, RAVE East Village Artist Residency, Friuli, Italy
Shay Salehi — Visual artist
Dimitris Soumalevris — Lawyer | Scientific Associate, A Promise to Animals, Greece
Federica Timeto — Associate Professor of Sociology of the Arts and Critical Animal Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
Richard Twine — Associate Professor in Sociology and Co-Director, Centre for Human-Animal Studies (CfHAS), Edge Hill University, UK
ioLi tzanetaki — Curator and advisor to the artistic director, ΕΜΣΤ
Dinesh Wadiwel — Associate Professor in Human Rights and Socio-Legal Studies, University of Sydney, Australia
TICKETS
Participation fee per day: €4.
Advance reservation is required.
With the daily ticket, you can attend any activity taking place as part of that day’s programme.
Ticket Change and Cancellation Policy
No changes allowed (to another day).
No cancellations allowed.
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