Sky Hopinka, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore, 2020. 80:21 min. HD video, stereo, colour (still)
An environmental justice programme, London, in the context of Sun & Sea at the Albany, 23 June - 10 July 2022
In conjunction with the presentation of Sun & Sea at the Albany, this public programme brings together a diverse cohort of environmental activists, artists and thinkers including air quality campaigner Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, anthropologist Dr Lez Henry, performance artist SERAFINE1369, visual artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, novelist Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, climate negotiator Eva Peace Mukariyaranga, economist Avinash Persaud and jazz educators Tomorrow’s Warriors alongside Sun & Sea’s artists Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte to explore themes of environmental justice for the context of Lewisham and London in 2022. The programme includes film screenings taking place at the Albany, Deptford, as well as a public symposium at the Serpentine Pavilion - Black Chapel, designed by Theaster Gates on 9th July.
EQUILIBRIUM: A public gathering on environmental justice
Saturday 9 July
Click here for info
FILM PROGRAMME
Saturdays & Sundays, 12-5pm
25-26 June; 2-3 July; 9-10 July
The Albany, Lewisham
Free, no booking required
Accompanying the symposium programme, a special screening series of artists’ films engages with questions around pollution, ecocide and climate breakdown.
Maria Thereza Alves, To See the Forest Standing, 2017 (excerpts)
Forensic Architecture, if toxic air is a monument to slavery, how do we take it down?, 2021
Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas, The Teaching of the Hands, 2020
Manthia Diawara, An Opera of the World, 2017
Sky Hopinka, maɬni – Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore, 2020
Karrabing Film Collective, Night Time Go, 2017
Tabita Rezaire, Sorry 4 Real, 2017
Sumayya Vally, Ingesting Architectures, 2020
TALKS AND WORKSHOPS
Workshop: Making a London Plane, a family workshop on pollution and trees, led by Metabolic Matters (Royal College of Art’s School of Architecture, ADS3 Studio), with Becky Lyons.
Saturday 2nd July, 10am-12pm, The Albany. Age guidance: Families. Free, book here
A hands-on workshop putting citizen science to work. Learn about the London Plane tree’s ability to absorb pollution and find out why it matters to Lewisham. This family friendly workshop will get you out in the neighbourhood and back to The Albany, so dress for the weather. Brought to you by students from the Royal College of Art’s School of Architecture ADS3 Studio, who have been developing the project together with studio leaders Cooking Sections as part of Serpentine’s Back to Earth, and with the collaboration of artist Becky Lyons. Attending the workshop gives access to a special offer for a £5 community ticket to watch Sun & Sea.
Artist Talk: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelyte in conversation with Vicki Amedume
Tuesday 28 June, 6:30pm, The Albany, Free, book here
Join the artists who developed the award-winning opera-performance Sun & Sea for an afternoon talk. In conversation with Vicki Amedume, the artists will discuss the making of the piece and its connection to the local context of Lewisham.
Listening Workshop by Lina Lapelyte
Sunday 10 July, 2-4pm, The Albany. Age guidance: 16+. Free, book here
A hands-on session on listening as a way of experiencing places, self, and others. We will go through practical exercises to experience listening as well as togetherness. We will explore the surroundings of a chosen location while activating different senses. This includes a 20 minutes walk in the surrounding area. During the second part of the workshop, we will be using a chosen text (or texts) and will try to embody it by using different methods to employ the voice and the body.
DISPLAY:
Sarah Stirk and Gina Allen in collaboration with the Ella Roberta Foundation, AIRBORNE & DRAWING AIR
25th June - 10th July, The Albany. Free
Working in collaboration with The Ella Roberta Foundation, Airborne is a visceral audio-visual art work that combines microscopic images of pollution in children’s spit, infrared photographs of children revealing veins, and data maps showing illegal levels of pollution in London. A soundscape, sculptures, and interviews with parents and children affected by asthma are on display to make the invisible threat of air pollution tangible. With thanks to Bertha Foundation and Arts Council England. Drawing Air focuses on the life of Ella Roberta Adoo-Kissi-Debrah. Ella was a bright, sporty and musical child, living in South East London. She sadly developed life-threatening asthma at age six, and died at the age of nine. Following a landmark legal case, Ella has since become the first person in the world to have air pollution recognised as a cause of death. Artist Gina Allen worked with Ella’s family to produce a series of images of Ella, using dirt collected from the wheels and exhausts of cars. Nearly 10,000 people in London (around 36,000 UK wide) die early every year from long-term exposure to air pollution. Two million Londoners, including more than 400,000 children, live in areas which exceed legal limits for air pollution. Children are the most vulnerable to this pollution as permanent, lifelong damage can be caused to their developing bodies. While acknowledging the sources and types of air pollution are many and various, both urban and rural, the material used highlights road traffic as one source of air pollution, inviting us to consider the human behaviours that influence the quality of the air that we breathe.
Scorching Suns, Rising Seas is curated by Radical Ecology (Ashish Ghadiali and Lucia Pietroiusti) and produced by Holly Shuttleworth. Emilian Isibo: Assistant Curator. Curatorial and production advice from Amaya Jeyarajah Dent, Kris Nelson and Matthew Schmolle. In partnership with: LIFT 2022, Serpentine’s Back to Earth project, We Are Lewisham, The Ella Roberta Family Foundation, Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network, University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, University of Exeter Arts & Culture, University of Exeter Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, UCL’s Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism & Racialisation, UCL Anthropocene, L-Acoustics & Open Society Foundations.
AIRBORNE & DRAWING AIR is curated by Sarah Stirk and produced by Matthew Schmolle.
Radical Ecology is supported by the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation.
