Fungi Night

Rafaella Houlstan-Hasaerts is a Belgian-Panamenian architect, researcher and teacher, co-founder of the multi-disciplinary action-research group Urban Species. She's part of  SpecXCraft; a co-creative, artistic research project between 4 Brussels-based organisations: Urban Species, Natagora, Centre Vidéo Bruxelles and Constant. Using concepts from SF (sci-fi and speculative fabulation) and methods of crafting and prototyping, the project tries to find answers to the following research question: Can fostering a particular form of imagination - speculative, embodied, materialised, responsible and multi-situated - lead to less resignation and more resilience facing Brussels’ future and its multiple crises?

Sara Manente studied dance and semiotics before coming to Brussels, where she works as an artist and researcher. Her projects start from the images and matter of living cultures and fungi in relation to performing arts. In different formats, she reflects on the possible contagion/transfer between pedagogy, research, performance and publication.

Theresa Spielmann (she/they) is a first-year PhD student at the Universiteit Antwerpen, where she is involved in the "Performing Ends" research project funded by FWO. Originally from Germany, Theresa completed an MPhil in Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick before relocating to Belgium. During and after their undergraduate studies in Theatre Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Theresa worked as a theatre maker, collaborating with the theatre collective Büro Grandezza. Notably, she served as the creative co-director for The 2051 Munich Climate Conference (2021) and as Editor for the subsequent publication "The 2051 Munich Climate Conference: Future Visions of Climate Change." Theresa's background in both academic research and practical theatre endeavours informs her interdisciplinary approach to her current doctoral studies.