1st Edition

Permacultures of Care Imagining New Narratives

By Luísa Santos Copyright 2026
220 Pages 21 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

220 Pages 21 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book reimagines what art institutions might become through the lens of three permaculture design principles—observe and interact, obtain a yield, and use and value diversity. Structured in three parts, the book moves between theory, case studies, and in-depth conversations with artists, curators, and collectives who are already reshaping institutional practices from within. Part 1,... Read more

Introduction: situating permacultures in art institutions 

Part 1. Observe and interact: transecting current multiple crises in art institutions

1. Observe and interact: missing the inter- and trans- sections in Europese language(s)

2. Cracks in the structure(s)

3. Net-ecologies: in conversation with Lucia Pietroiusti

4. Situated practices: in conversation with Rita Ouedraogo 

Part 2. Obtain a yield: networks of relationships, resources, and practices

5. Obtain a yield: the hospitable art institution(s) and the guest(s)/parasite(s)

6. Cultures of hospitality in cultural disappearance: from bitter towards sweet via gestures of enchantment in Mirna Bamieh’s artistic practice

7. Practicing commoning: in conversation with Sara Rodrigues and Rodrigo B. Camacho

8. A garden as a multispecies archive: in conversation with Giulia Belinnetti           

Part 3. Use and value diversity: imagi(ni)ng alternative narratives and futures

9. Use and value diversity: Planetary-Plotting (with) Art Institutions

10. Land and soil as tools for resistance and imagination: a creole garden in the 60th Venice Biennale

11. Plurality of unknown futures: in conversation with The Third Thing (Nithya Iyer and Vlad Mizikov)

12. Seminarium: in conversation with Ana Rito

 

Index

Biography

Luísa Santos is a Senior Researcher and Associate Professor in Culture Studies/Artistic Studies, since 2016, at the Research Centre for Communication and Culture, Faculty of Human Sciences, Catholic University of Portugal. The author of several publications in the domains of art and society, Luísa Santos is the artistic director of the Institution(ing)s.

Co-authors and contributors: The conversational chapters in this book are co-authored with Luísa Santos alongside Lucia Pietroiusti, Rita Ouédraogo, Sara Rodrigues, and Rodrigo B. Camacho (Landra); Giulia Bellinetti, Nithya Iyer, and Vlad Mizikov (The Third Thing); and Ana Rito.