For Doctor Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, the lines between art, science and politics do not exist – rather, these disciplines are overlapping tools in her advocacy for pluralism, sustainability and counterculture.
It is this purpose that unites her projects, which span from founding the International Space Orchestra at NASA to interviewing Noam Chomsky with a puppet version of Hannah Arendtfor 2019’s I Am (Not) a Monster and touring the United Kingdom with a giant inflatable octopus for her Tour de Moon festival.
Last year, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian was nominated for the SXSW Vision Award for Doppelgängers3, a film contemplating sustainable, eco-feminist visions for expansion into space. Alongside interviews with the SETI Institute’s Doctor Jill Tarter and LGBTQIA+ activist Lilit Martirosyan, it featured a soundtrack from Pussy Riot, the Russian band whose anti-Putin activism saw its members arrested and jailed in 2012
Read Nelly interview with Joshua Beutum here
