The Institute of Queer Ecology


The Institute of Queer Ecology is a collaborative, protean collective that works to imagine and realize an equitable multispecies future that builds on a theoretical framework and adaptive practice concerned with interconnectivity, intimacy, and multispecies relationality. They work to undo dangerously destructive human-centric hierarchies—or even flip them—and look at the critical importance of things happening invisibly, underground, and out of sight. The idea of mimicry lies at the heart of the IQECO’s vibrant identity—mimicry as an act of survival, manifested in the adaptive behavior of many species and distinctly connected to the history of queer communities. Presenting itself as an institute in a dual act of mimicry and infiltration, it aims to reintegrate queerness into scientific discourse and bring artists to the table of environmental decision making.

Founded in 2017 and co-directed by Lee Pivnik and Nicolas Baird, the Institute of Queer Ecology has worked with over 130 different artists to date, presenting interdisciplinary programming that oscillates between curating exhibitions and directly producing artworks. It has presented projects with New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf, Medellín Museum of Modern Art , Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Biennale of Sydney, Chicago’s Prairie, Bas Fisher Invitational, Gas Gallery Los Angeles, and Vox Populi in Philadelphia, among others.

The Institute of Queer Ecology is participating in "I'm Spartacus!"



Participants