Constant organised two study days on the 10 & 11 December 2025 around the figure of the urban rat in the context of the yearly trajectory called Otherworldly communications.

These study days were meant to critically engage with different conceptions of the ’other’ as in: other than human, otherworldly and otherings. We convoked the figure of the urban rat to speak about notions of invasiveness and out-of-place-ness, and to examine how the gesture of othering normalises and fuels systemic violence. These study days brought us closer to so-called invasive/unwanted species while discussing biosocial order, sterile urban spaces and, consequently, who gets to (visibly) occupy them.

During these two days, we scratched at several layers through a visit to the Sewer Museum of Brussels, contributions and activations from the Invasive Species Working Group, collective readings and a speculative writing session by Maru Mushtrieva.

https://constantvzw.org/site/Study-days-Rattus-urbanicus.html?lang=en