Woods: More-than-Human Curiosity

Woolly Grazing
Pastoral Seminar
Petrohradská kolektiv
9 December 2025, 5–10 PM
Free entry

Presented and curated by the collective Pastvina: anto_nie, Edith Jeřábková, Kateřina Žák Konvalinová, Denisa Langrová, Ruta Putramentaite, Alex Sihelsk*
With guests Salka Tiziana and Tereza Špinková

The pastoral seminar will help us gain insight into the way of life of grazing animals and of shepherdesses and shepherds. The research project of the six-member group Pastvina (Pasture) will present not only the herding practices and grazing sites visited by the group during their research, but also a part of pastoral culture that continues to survive despite century-long efforts of the modern age to stop the movement of these human and more-than-human nomads. Artistic intervention, lectures on wool and on queer herding, screenings of art and documentary films, and presentations of research will bring contemporary pastoral and visual art cultures closer together.

The seminar will be held in Czech and English with Czech interpretation, and the films will be screened in their original versions with English subtitles.

Program
17.00 – 17.20 Opening remarks by the Pastvina group
17.20 – 18.05 Reports on Czech and Slovak shepherds and shepherdesses
18.05 – 18.15 Break
18.15 – 19.15 Lecture by Kateřina Žák Konvalinová and Tereza Špinková: Local Wool Today, followed by a discussion
19.15 – 20.00 Film screening: All Sounds Within by Salka Tiziana, introduced by the author
20.00 – 20.15 Break
20.15 – 21.00 Lecture by Alex Sihelsk*: Being with the Herd
21.00 – 21.10 Invitation to Shepherd Conspiracy at Toulcův dvůr
21.10 – 21.30 Film screening: Time of Hungarian Women Herders by Nikolett Csányi

Detailed program
17:20 – 18:05
Reports on Czech and Slovak shepherds and shepherdesses visited by the Pastvina collective as part of their 2025 research.

18:15 – 19:15
Lecture by Kateřina Žák Konvalinová and Tereza Špinková: Local Wool Today, followed by discussion
A presentation of their artistic-theoretical research on the story of sheep’s wool and its current developments in our region.

19.15 – 20.00
Screening of Salka Tiziana’s film “All Sounds Within” with an introduction by the author
All Sounds Within, (DE/ES, dir. Salka Tiziana, 2022, 26 min)
In the heart of Madrid a ravaged forest lays calm in the aftermath of the storm. Shepherds, sheep and dogs roam among the branches of uprooted trees. Above them, the city resounds with birdsong and underneath we hear the murmurs of the herd. Old walls, new barriers enclose this territory. At night its borders dissolve on the hilltop. Under a black sky the contours of its inhabitants emerge. The land rings out and the city glimmers.

20.15 – 21.00
Lecture by Alex Sihelsk*: Being with the Herd
A lecture on queer pastoralism as staying with the herd of the land. Queerness – often reduced merely to an “urban” matter – has always been an inseparable part of relationships with the land and with more-than-human actors. It has therefore always had its place in “rural” contexts as well. By focusing on herding practices, we will attempt to contextualize queerness within the canon of world history.

21.10 – 21.30
Film screening „Time of Hungarian Women Herders” by Nikolett Csányi
Time of Hungarian Women Herders (HU, dir. Nikolett Csányi, 2023, 15 min)
A documentary about women who work in pastoralism in Hungary. In 2021, several of them established a group called 'Hungarian Women Herders' to increase the visibility and recognition of women who are actively engaged in caring for and herding sheep, cattle, horses etc. The documentary follows Ibolya Sáfián as she tends to her animals and explains her motivations to establish the group.

The event is organised as part of the project Woods: Pastoral Twilight: Initiatives for rural cultures, with organisational support from Petrohradská kolektiv, and also serves as an invitation to the theoretical seminar at Toulcův dvůr, 7–8 February 2026. The United Nations has declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), and the Shepherd Conspiracy has been included in its official programme.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Goethe-Institut Czech Republic
Media partners: Culture.net, ArtMap, Artyčok.TV
Thanks to: Ovenecká 33, Petrohradská kolektiv