Participatory seminar with Lleah Smith

What does it mean to ferment pedagogy ~ art ~ curatorial relations?

Building on time spent doing a residency with Kin Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiruna in October-December 2024 and the experience of learning with and among materials, beings, and bodies beyond the Arctic Circle, the seminar explores how we might ferment pedagogy, art, and curatorial relations. It pushes boundaries to create a space where knowledge is dynamically formed through the lively interplay of ideas and bodies.

Participants will engage in dialogical processes that are slow, situated, transformative, collaborative, and porous. Fermentation becomes a teacher—an agent of change that encourages encounters where theory fizzes with practice, and the participant becomes an active agent through collective exploration, forging bubbly assemblages for creative and critical discourse.

Lleah Smith was born in Cabrogal Country, Australia, and is currently based in Ngāmotu, Aotearoa. Being active in the Asia Pacific region more widely, her practice is in the intersection of pedagogy, art, and the curatorial. Her PhD research at Monash University in Melbourne and the University of Illinois in Chicago aims to position fermentation as a “teacher”. Smith has realized the Radical Care Kit, Sydney Children’s Hospital (2023–2024) and The Waterhouse, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rīvus (2021–2022). She has also led socially engaged art projects including, Hidden Lessons, Powerhouse (2021–2022) and FUTURE SCHOOL, Cementa22 (2022). In September 2024, Smith began working as the “Cultural Experiences, Public Programs and Learning Lead” at Govett-Brewster / Len Lye Centre and Puke Ariki in Ngāmotu, Aotearoa.

Photos:
Lleah Smith and Fiona Young (Hayball), School of Water for 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rïvus (2022). Photo: Four minutes to Midnight.
Lleah Smith, Fermentology as a methodology (2024)