Senses of Waste
Library Nights #2
'Senses of Waste'
Michael Marder in conversation with Maksud Ali Mondal
Monday 22 September, 17.30
Rijksakademie Reading Room
Entrance free, RSVP here
Join researcher Michael Marder and artist and Rijksakademie alum Maksud Ali Mondal for a presentation of artistic research and conversation on the many meanings of waste. Far from being neutral, waste shapes our everyday lives and environments, revealing hierarchies of value, care, and neglect. Together, Michael and Maksud will explore in dialogue these and related issues, while also paying close attention to the bodily senses (not only olfaction, but all of them!) that are, in one way or another, imbricated with waste.
What is waste—mere discard, or the very matter of being itself? In the first part of the talk, Michael Marder will explore waste as both kernel and shell of existence, that which sustains life and suffocates it, remakes worlds and devastates them. From metabolic byproducts to planetary debris, waste unsettles neat distinctions between the useful and the useless, the nourishing and the toxic. In the Anthropocene, unwasting waste—plastics, nuclear residues, industrial emissions—exemplifies both the persistence and paradox of residues that do not dissipate and that aim to do away with its fecund doubleness.
Following Michael Marder's lecture, Maksud Ali Mondal will share insights from his long-standing practice exploring organisms and our complex, often overlooked relationships with them. His work reflects on how natural phenomena are narrated through socially constructed norms, frequently in negative or stigmatised ways. He challenges these perceptions by highlighting the interconnectedness of microbial and organic life.
As part of this conversation, Maksud will introduce ‘panta bhat’, a traditional fermented rice dish from Bengal, which will be served during the event. This food embodies microbial collaboration while also resisting cultural erasure through everyday nourishment, labour, class structures, and embodied knowledge.
Dinner
After the talk, our Cantina will be open for dinner from 18.30–19.30. Please let us know if you will join for dinner by checking the option in the RSVP form by Thursday 18 September 15.00 hours at the latest.
We ask for registration in advance to be sure there is enough for everyone, and no food is wasted.
Price:
€ 6 for small dinner
€ 7.50 for big dinner
Michael Marder
Michael Marder is Ikerbasque research professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Global Reconstitution (IGRec), Berlin. His most recent books include ‘The Phoenix Complex’ (2023), ‘Time Is a Plant’ (2023), with Edward S. Casey, ‘Plants in Place’ (2024), ‘Eco-Freud’ (2025) and ‘Metamorphoses Reimagined’ (2025).
michaelmarder.org
Maksud Ali Mondal
Maksud Ali Mondal was born in Bankura, West Bengal, India. He completed his BFA and MFA from Kala Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, in 2019 and at the KABK (The Hague, NL) in 2016.
His practice includes facilitating experiential understanding of organisms in a durational, built microcosm, using sculpture, painting, installation, and photographs, including temperature, humidity, moisture, dampness, and light. He is interested in generating reflections on how we understand ourselves in relation to each other, including other species, organisms, and civilizations, as well as our place in the transforming environment. His work deals with microbial contamination as a conversational expression, based on the observation of growth, transformations, and decomposition of organic matter by bacteria, fungi, plants, microbial creatures, fermentation, decomposition, oxidation, and rotting, as well as with the organic, man-made, found objects and every day, discarded materials.
www.maksudalimondal.com
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