Open City

Open City is a season of decolonial art and public programming presented by Radical Ecology and partners through the autumn of 2023 that invites artists, activists and thinkers from across south-west England to listen, walk and dream together as we explore the essential role of inclusive civic spaces in creating just and sustainable planetary futures here and now. 

Centered around the group exhibition, Against Apartheid, which takes place at KARST in Plymouth between 28 September - 2 December 2023, interconnected issues including histories and legacies of the plantation and contemporary contexts of forced migration and climate breakdown will inform talks and public lectures by renowned speakers including artist Annalee Davis, writer Gary Younge, climate scientist Tim Lenton and activist Françoise Vergès. 

The role of music and deep listening as tools for shaking off the cobwebs of white supremacy runs through the programme including interventions delivered in collaboration with the Center for Deep Listening that draw on legacies of artist and researcher Pauline Oliveros, as well as new iterations of an ongoing programme for jazz education across Devon and Cornwall, Musical Passage. Live performances by spoken word artist Otis Mensah and folk singer Angeline Morrison form part of the Black Atlantic symposium - a public celebration of the 30th anniversary of Paul Gilroy’s seminal decolonial text, The Black Atlantic (25 & 26 November 2023). 

At KARST, Wednesday nights throughout October and November will be the site of an Open City Night School. Eight community leaders will bring together perspectives on Plymouth from across refugee and asylum seeker communities, school teachers, third sector workers and the armed forces, developing methods for seeing the city through the eyes of another. This learning will inform the collaborative development of A Silent Walk. The walk through Plymouth will take place on 26 November 2023, ending with a shared breakfast on Plymouth Hoe and reflections on how we might harvest these public processes to imagine new and practicable frameworks for environmental justice. 

Open City is presented by Radical Ecology in partnership with KARST, The Box, Choose Love, Real Ideas Organisation, Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support, Diversity Business Incubator, Jabulani, Plymouth Culture, The Arts Institute at the University of Plymouth, Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, Arts and Culture at the University of Exeter, UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the study of Racism and Racialisation, The Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Asone Music Hub, Plymouth Music Hub, Devon and Torbay Music Hubs, Torbay Community Development Trust, the Apricot Centre and Zebra Collective.