Hibernation – Approaches to a Phenomenon with Mario Petuzzi and Armen Avanessian

When the snow in the Alps melts all the way down into the valley, the time has come: the mother awakens from her winter slumber, her head full of dreams from the past few months. She is awaited by her grandfather and looked after by her children, the twins. Soon the first visitors arrive, for the mother’s dreams promise guidance and offer comfort. So it goes, year after year. But this summer, the twins’ tenth, everything will change – and what the mother prophesies will come true.

Armen Avanessian, philosopher and specialist in speculative thinking about the future, presents hibernation – winter sleep or winter torpor – as an insight-giving natural technique for our times. He combines philosophical reflection with cultural analysis: Hibernation becomes a metaphor for concrete strategies of winding down and winding up again amidst hyperactivity, the pressure to grow and multiple crises.

Christoph Steier moderates the discussion on hibernation and hocus-pocus.