Welcome to Arts & Enaction Events, a dynamic and evolving series at the intersection of art, creativity, and philosophy. This year, as part of our ongoing exploration into Arts & Aesthetics in the Enactive Fold, we are excited to launch a unique space for intellectual and creative exchange.
The events in this series will be open to a live Zoom audience, with time for questions, and will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.
Arts & Enaction Series 2025-2026
Arts and Aesthetics in the Enactive Fold
Please go to Upcoming Events to find the upcoming ARTS & ENACTION EVENTS
Arts & Enaction Events in 2026
Arts & Enaction Instalment #4 with Prof Alva Noë and Dr Nicole Peisl
For this particular dialogue, philosopher and author Prof Alva Noë will welcome choreographer, dancer, and somatic practitioner Dr Nicole Peisl to the stage for what promises to be a deeply moving encounter.
Starting from the idea that art and philosophy are both ways of performing ourselves, and so enacting ourselves, these two meet to see if it is possible for them to really meet, to find common language, or uncommon language, for collaboration or mutual re-organisation. Alva won’t interview Nicole and Nicole won’t interview Alva. Each will attempt to be with the other, together, with curiosity. Will something be enacted? Will something happen? Can we learn something about the way art and philosophy are both potentially modalities of self-making and world-making through this encounter? Please join us for this experiment in intimacy, invention, and discovery.
Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also a member of the Center for New Media, the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, as well as the Program in Critical Theory. Professor Noë is a 2012 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2018 recipient of the Judd Hume Prize in Advanced Visual Studies. Until the end of 2026, he is an Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University in Berlin. He is the author of Action in Perception (2004), Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness (2009), Varieties of Presence (2012), Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (2015), Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark (2019), and Learning To Look: Dispatches from the Art World (2022). His latest book is The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are (2023). He is currently writing about love, life, perspective, and AI.
Nicole Peisl, PhD is a choreographer, dancer, educator, and dog trainer whose work bridges performance, somatic practice, and human–animal relationships. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from UC Davis and is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), Polarity Coach, and certified dog trainer (CTC, CBATI-KA). Drawing on her background as a dancer with The Forsythe Company, Nicole creates performances, installations, and collaborative research projects that explore perception, presence, and connection. Her work centers embodied experience and the cultivation of felt sense as a meaningful way of knowing. Alongside her artistic practice, she teaches internationally, engaging diverse communities in creative processes that integrate movement, somatic inquiry, and relational awareness. She is committed to embodied practices that support transformation and make change visible.
Arts & Enaction Events in 2025
In this third instalment of the Arts & Enaction series, Louwrien Wijers walked us through her award-winning exhibition, and entered into dialogue with filmmakers Petrine Petrine Vinje and Carsten Aniksdal, and Martijn van Beek about her artistic philosophy, aesthetic practices, and the many influences that have come into her work through science and spirituality.
Arts & Enaction Instalment #3 with Louwrien Wijers
As part of our 2025 Arts & Enaction Series, we are thrilled to announce a very special live event with Dutch artist Louwrien Wijers (Aalten, 1941), whose exhibition “We Live in Language” will be opening on 29th November at the Fries Museum in the Netherlands. Louwrien is known to many as a trailblazing artist working with dialogue, language, and what she calls ‘mental sculptures.’ But she is equally known as a catalyst for some of the most significant encounters between scientists, artists, and spiritual leaders, most notably the 1990 conference “Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy,” where Francisco Varela was a featured speaker, among many other luminaries such as the Dalai Lama, David Bohm, Fritjof Capra, Marina Abramovic, John Cage, and many others. Now in her eighth decade, she was the winner of the 2025 Gerrit Benner Prize, for which the jury’s citation reads: “She sees words, thoughts and communication as a form of art and emphasises their importance to society. Her work is calm and thoughtful, and forms a powerful counterbalance to the fast-paced visual culture.”
On Wednesday 17th December at 18:00-20:00 CET, we have the distinct privilege of hosting a live event with her in partnership with the Fries Museum, where she’ll walk us through her award-winning exhibition, and dialogue about her artistic philosophy, aesthetic practices, and the many influences that have come into her work through science and spirituality.
The programme will feature a short introduction video, a narrated walkthrough of the exhibition, a preview clip from the forthcoming film From Competition to Compassion, live conversations with the filmmakers Petrine Vinje and Carsten Aniksdal, and a dialogue between Louwrien and Martijn van Beek, before concluding with an audience Q&A.
Here is a list of the different books that were referred to during the session with Louwrien Wijers:
- “Art Meets Science & Spirituality in a Changing Economy”
- Thompson, C. (2011). Felt: Fluxus, Joseph Beuys, and the Dalai Lama. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Tisdall, C., et al., Eds. (1990). Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy. ‘s Gravenhage and Amsterdam: SDU Publishers and Stichting Art for Peace.
- Wijers, L. (1982). His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet Talks to Louwrien Wijers. Velp: Kantoor voor Cultuur Extracten.
- Wijers, L. (1996). Writing as sculpture: 1978-1987. London: John Wiley & Sons.
- Wijers, L., Ed. (1996). Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy: From Competition to Compassion. London: Academy Editions.
Arts & Enaction Instalment #2 with Prof Alva Noë and Jonathan Burrows
At the centre of our year devoted to Arts & Aesthetics in the Enactive Fold, Prof Alva Noë will be hosting a series of live encounters with renowned artists and creators from around the globe, opening up a dialogical space for thinking through questions of process, praxis, and the philosophies that drive their creative endeavours.
Starting from the idea that art and philosophy are both ways of performing ourselves, and so enacting ourselves, Prof Alva Noë and Jonathan Burrows meet to see if it is possible for them really to meet, to find common language, or uncommon language, for collaboration or mutual re-organisation. Alva won’t interview Jonathan and Jonathan won’t interview Alva. Each will attempt to be with the other, together, with curiosity. Will something be enacted? Will something happen? Can we learn something about the way art and philosophy are both potentially modalities of self-making and world-making through this encounter? Please join us for this experiment in intimacy, invention and discovery meet to see if it is possible for them really to meet, to find common language, or uncommon language, for collaboration or mutual re-organisation. Alva won’t interview Jonathan and Jonathan won’t interview Alva. Each will attempt to be with the other, together, with curiosity. Will something be enacted? Will something happen? Can we learn something about the way art and philosophy are both potentially modalities of self-making and world-making through this encounter? Please join us for this experiment in intimacy, invention and discovery.
ABOUT THE HOST
Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also a member of the Center for New Media, the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, as well as the Program in Critical Theory. Professor Noë is a 2012 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2018 recipient of the Judd Hume Prize in Advanced Visual Studies. Until the end of 2026, he is an Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University in Berlin. He is the author of Action in Perception (2004), Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness (2009), Varieties of Presence (2012), Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (2015), Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark (2019), and Learning To Look: Dispatches from the Art World (2022). His latest book is The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are (2023). He is currently writing about love, life, perspective, and AI.
Alva has been partnering with MLE on this series. He is a leading figure in enactive philosophy, and for this series he hosts live encounters with renowned artists and creators from around the globe, opening up a dialogical space for thinking through questions of process, praxis, and the philosophies that drive their creative endeavours.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jonathan Burrows danced for 13 years with the Royal Ballet in London, during which time he also began performing regularly with experimental choreographer Rosemary Butcher. He has since created an internationally acclaimed body of performance work, including The Stop Quartet (1996) and Weak Dance Strong Questions (with Jan Ritsema, 2001), as well as his long series of collaborations with composer Matteo Fargion, including Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005), Speaking Dance (2006), Cheap Lecture (2009), The Cow Piece (2009), Body Not Fit For Purpose (2014) and Rewriting (2021).
Jonathan is a founding visiting member of faculty at P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium and has, for many years, been a regular collaborator on Jonzi D’s Back To The Lab HipHop theatre mentoring project at Breakin’ Convention, Sadler’s Wells, London. He is the author of A Choreographer’s Handbook (Routledge, 2010, 2nd edition 2024) and Writing Dance (Varamo, 2022) and is currently Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University. [Bio courtesy of https://www.impulstanz.com/]
Arts & Enaction Instalment #1 with Prof Alva Noë and Fabrice Mazliah
The opening event in our Arts & Enaction series featured a live conversation between philosopher Prof Alva Noë and Swiss choreographer Fabrice Mazliah. This new series invites renowned artists and thinkers into dialogue around the processes, philosophies, and practices that shape their work.
In a candid and layered exchange, Mazliah reflected on the role of the audience—not merely as spectators, but as a vital, sometimes fraught presence within the creative act. He spoke of performance as a gift, something personal and enigmatic, meant to be interpreted and reinterpreted. Noë pushed back at times, questioning the balance between generosity and control, and asking how love, resistance, and vulnerability intersect in the act of making art.
Together, they explored what it means to perform not just for others, but for those absent or even imagined. The conversation touched on themes of expectation, fragility, philosophical inquiry, and the artist’s struggle to let go. Rather than arriving at conclusions, the evening opened up a space of ongoing reflection—an invitation to think and feel through the complexity of aesthetic experience.
ABOUT THE HOST
Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also a member of the Center for New Media, the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, as well as the Program in Critical Theory. Professor Noë is a 2012 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2018 recipient of the Judd Hume Prize in Advanced Visual Studies. Until the end of 2026, he is an Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University in Berlin. He is the author of Action in Perception (2004), Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness (2009), Varieties of Presence (2012), Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (2015), Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark (2019), and Learning To Look: Dispatches from the Art World (2022). His latest book is The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are (2023). He is currently writing about love, life, perspective, and AI.
Alva has been partnering with MLE on this series. He is a leading figure in enactive philosophy, and for this series he hosts live encounters with renowned artists and creators from around the globe, opening up a dialogical space for thinking through questions of process, praxis, and the philosophies that drive their creative endeavours.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Fabrice Mazliah is a Swiss choreographer and performer based in Frankfurt am Main. A former member of Nederlands Dans Theater and Ballet Frankfurt/The Forsythe Company (1997–2015), his work blends choreography with artistic research, exploring embodied knowledge and the evolving relationship between bodies, objects, language, and environments.
Mazliah is known for centering the role of the spectator, creating works that invite multiple perspectives and challenge binary interpretations. His practice merges movement and language, seeking new forms of narrative and poetry. He has developed a diverse repertoire both independently and collaboratively, including key works such as REMOTE VERSIONS, HUE, and ZERO, and co-founded the collectives MAMAZA, HOOD, and Work of Act. His projects have been presented widely, from Kunstenfestivaldesarts and Théâtre de la Ville to the Venice Architecture Biennale.
In addition to his artistic work, Mazliah teaches internationally, contributing to programs like P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), La Manufacture (Lausanne), and C.U.P. (Giessen). In 2024, he is Artist in Residence at Künstler:innenhaus Mousonturm and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. He lives between Basel and Frankfurt.