ZOEpolis

ZOEpolis is an imaginary human-non-human community in which plants, animals and fungi have civil rights and participate in the design of their material environment. It is also a project dedicated to finding and creating a common space for humans and non-humans. ZOEpolis is dedicated to design beyond the anthropocentric paradigm and the search for solutions that can become a platform for the creation of a radical human-non-human community. Challenging the centrality of humans in design is an exercise in empathy from which our species can also benefit. The project proposes an experiment in the field of changing perspectives and thinking about design that, without excluding humans, would approach non-humans subjectively. So far, the ZOEpolis project has produced three exhibitions (Dizajn Gallery BWA Wrocław, 2017; Nośna Gallery, Krakow, 2019, ARTLAB Wyspa, Gdansk, 2023) and a multi-author publication (ZOEpolis. Building a human-non-human community, M. Gurowska, M. Rosińska, A. Szydłowska (eds.), Bęc Zmiana Foundation, Warsaw, 2020). ZOEpolis was initiated as part of a project entitled ‛Cartographies of Strangeness, Otherness, and (ex)(in)clusion. The Perspective of Contemporary Philosophy and Art', implemented by the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Warsaw and co-funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education under the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities.