More on MILK

When you think of milk, you usually see it as a liquid, in a glass, from a carton or very occasionally still freshly squeezed from a cow's udders. But milk stands for so much more - it talks of maternal care and sterile efficiency, of colonial power and global consumption, of human nature and our relationship to animals.

Artist Marit Shalem aka SpOp became fascinated by the reductive transformation of liquid milk into powder, one of the processes that vastly increased the ubiquity of ‘the white engine’ as food. It became the starting point for her associatively layered documentary installation MILK in which milk figures as a phenomenon in all its capacities.

Divided over 34 scenes and 5 screens in an 80-minute loop, MILK takes the viewer on an investigation along a ‘milky way’ stretching from Switzerland, via the Netherlands to Norway.

Interviews with farmers, industrialists and scientists are key elements in the documentary. Some of them will be guests at MU on 7 February from 19.30 to talk further with Marit Shalem about the role of milk in today's world.

Speakers

• Philosopher and cultural critic Rick Dolphijn (Utrecht University) | Live
• Professor of law and animal rights activist Iselin Gambert (George Washington University) | Will join online
• Cultural geographer and bioethicist Clemens Driessen (Wageningen University) | Live
• Farmer and professor Stian Biong (University of Southeastern Norway) | Will join online
  

Program

19.00 - 19.30 | Walk-in

19.30 - 20.30 | Short introduction by each speaker on the topics of MILK from their perspective

20.45 - 21.30 | Panel with all speakers and the audience

21.30 - 22.00 | Discussion at the bar

• Free admission for students (show your student card at the front desk!)
• €5 for regular visitors
• MILK is currently on show as part of the exhibition Sensing Otherness / Navigating the more-than-human world at MU Hybrid Art House. Before and after the program it will be possible to visit the exhibition.
• A MILK publication is available with essays, transcripts and images.
  
  MILK is a co-production with TENT, and has been made possible by the Mondriaan Fund, Culture Fund and Municipality of Rotterdam.

More information: www.spop.nl/wp/milk