Asturias, Spain: Tuning into the struggles of a post industrial-region #6 Cynthia Hathaway

We decide to have the conversation in a parked car, with an enormous hand made world-of-wool-map on our lap. As if we are on an imaginary roadtrip through Cynthia Hathaway’s practise. It fits her way of working: creating fun, momentum and dialogue. Canadian born Hathaway came to the Netherlands in the late 90ies. She calls herself an artistic ‘searcher’ without the re- attached. Always looking for surprising angles and ways to connect different fields of working and thinking. From miniature trains to giant vegetables, from founding a disco in an academic institute to growing potatoes to embody Gilles Deleuze’s Rhizomatic thinking. Her latest intervention: a wool march. A walk with a herd of 250 sheep, shepherds and dogs straight through the centre of the Dutch textile city Tilburg. To raise awareness for lost connections between humans, animals and landscape. 

A talk about the art of not knowing, the dedication of amateurs, the loud Asturian hills, the global versus the local and the ongoing beat of disco music. Yeah. 

References:

More about Cynthia Hathaway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAaNgIPbXvc More about Wool Alliance for Social Agency: https://woolallianceforsocialagency.blog/ System D Academy, Sandberg Instituut: https://sandberg.nl/system-d-academy The Department of Search (Zero Footprint Campus): http://www.hathawaydesigns.org/the-department-of-search.html