16. sep. 2025—16. sep. 2025
Copenhagen Conversations with Jane Bennett & Tim Ingold
A talk about creativity, life, materiality, ecological imbalance, and the connection between humans and nature.
Two of today’s most influential thinkers in political philosophy and anthropology, Jane Bennett (US) and Tim Ingold (UK), meet for the first time in a conversation about life, materiality, interconnectedness, and human development.
The conversation is moderated by Lotte Folke Kaarsholm, Head of Opinion at Politiken, and is part of the talk series Copenhagen Conversations.
Together, they bring us closer to some of the most inspiring questions of our time:
How can we understand ourselves in an age where humans can no longer be seen as separate from nature?
How is human creativity connected to the generative forces of nature?
And how can we imagine new ways of living and creating in a world marked by ecological and political imbalance?
Information
- Language: The conversation is in English
- Date: September 17th from 7-9 PM
- Location: At the National Museum
- Price: 195 DKK. | The ticket is also valid for museum entry on the same day (note: the museum is closed between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM)
Jane Bennett
The American philosopher and political theorist Jane Bennett, with her theory of vibrant matter and political ecology, focuses on the life of objects and materials and how they affect us and shape our behavior. She invites us to reconsider our relationship with things like waste, electricity, mud, plants, and plastic as living actors, rather than just a passive and neutral backdrop. According to Bennett, humans are part of a living, agential materiality, and therefore politics, ethics, and existence must be viewed in the light of the networks of objects, nature, and technologies that surround us.
Tim Ingold
Anthropologist Tim Ingold is known for his innovative thinking on human evolution, craftsmanship, creativity, landscapes, and how we learn through movement and interaction. Drawing on concepts such as dwelling, lines, and correspondence, he challenges the separation between nature and culture and explores how we perceive and understand the world: Nature is not an object, but a living fabric we are inextricably woven into. Human creativity, Ingold says, is not something we add to the world, but something that emerges from our participation in the movements, rhythms, and patterns of nature.
Lotte Folke Kaarsholm
The conversation is moderated by journalist and opinion editor at Politiken, Lotte Folke Kaarsholm.
Copenhagen Conversations
Copenhagen Conversations is a talk series at the National Museum of Denmark featuring international scholars and intellectuals who, with cultural history as their point of departure, reflect on what it means to live in the present.
The series is a collaboration between the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark. Previous guests include Hartmut Rosa, Monique Scheer, and François Hartog.
