What changes when the focus of artistic and curatorial practices is the planet itself? How are projects, exhibitions and events created with and for the Earth and its ecosystems? What role can art play in addressing the climate crisis and asserting climate justice?
With Earth in Mind featured art professionals whose work has been created with and for the Earth and its ecosystems, and with the aim of provoking discussions and raising awareness around environmental issues. The series of talks was curated and moderated by Daphne Dragona, independent curator and member of the 5th SNF Artist Fellowship Program Selection Committee.
With Earth in Mind included the following talks:
Artist Talk: Mikhail Karikis, Monday / March 27th, 17:00-19:00, Romantso
Curator’s Talk: Lucia Pietroiusti “A letter from America (Thoughts on ecological practice)” / Thursday, April 27th, 17:00-19:00, Zoom
Design Talk: El Hadi Jazairy, Architect and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, co-founder of the research practice DESIGN EARTH / Thursday, May 25th, 17:00-19:00, Zoom
Curated by Daphne Dragona, curator and writer
Mikhail Karikis © Felicity Crawshaw
Lucia Pietroiusti
El Hadi Jazairy
Artist Talk: Mikhail Karikis
Monday / March 27th, 17:00-19:00, Romantso
During his presentation, Mikhail elaborated on the methodologies he implements when developing his projects in collaboration with different communities. He touched upon various ideas around socially engaged art and talked about the act of listening as an alternative mode of imaginary activism.
Mikhail Karikis is a Greek/British artist based in London and Lisbon. His work in moving image, sound, performance and other media is exhibited in leading contemporary art biennials, museums and film festivals internationally. Through collaborations with individuals and/or communities located beyond the circles of contemporary art and (in recent years) with children, teenagers, young adults and people with disabilities, Karikis develops socially embedded projects that prompt an activist imaginary and rouse the potential to imagine possible or desired futures of self-determination and potency. Centering on listening as an artistic strategy and focusing on themes of social and environmental justice, his projects highlight alternative modes of human action and solidarity, while nurturing critical attention, dignity and tenderness.
Curator’s Talk: Lucia Pietroiusti “A letter from America (Thoughts on ecological practice)”
Thursday, April 27th, 17:00-19:00, Zoom
Lucia spoke about the role art and culture can play in today’s environmental crisis, reflecting on her latest research around worlding and worldbuilding practices in relation to different political and ecological realities.
Lucia Pietroiusti is a curator working at the intersection of art, ecology and systems, usually outside of the gallery format. Pietroiusti is the founder of the General Ecology project at Serpentine, London – a strategic, cross-organisational effort dedicated to the implementation of ecological principles throughout the Galleries’ public-facing programmes, internal infrastructure, and networks; and is currently developing the Institute for General Ecology, Pietroiusti is the curator of Sun & Sea (Marina) by Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte, the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (and 2020-2022 international tour). She is the curator of The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (Serpentine homepage / web portal and broadcast platform) an interdisciplinary festival, radio and publication series on consciousness and intelligence across species (with Filipa Ramos, since 2018); as well as the curator of the second edition of POWER NIGHT at E-Werk Luckenwalde, titled Being Mothers, in 2021/2022, and the 8th Biennale Gherdeïna, Personen Persons, in 2022 (with Filipa Ramos).
At Serpentine, Pietroiusti is Strategic Consultant for Ecology, and she was Curator of General Ecology from 2018-2021. General Ecology has presented live events, radio programmes, publications as well as ongoing research projects. Pietroiusti is also a co-curator of Back to Earth – Serpentine’s 50th anniversary programme, dedicated to the environment (ongoing), which invites 65+ artists to devise environmental campaigns, prototypes or interventions in artwork form. Pietroiusti was the co-founder and co-curator of the Serpentine Podcast (since 2015, with Eva Jäger, Ben Vickers and Kay Watson) and the co-curator of the climate-justice gatherings, Sensing the Planet (29 Oct-1 Nov 2021, Dartington Trust / Serpentine, with Amal Khalaf and Ashish Ghadiali) and Equilibrium (9 July, Serpentine, with Ashish Ghadiali/Radical Ecology)
Design Talk: El Hadi Jazairy, Architect and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, co-founder of the research practice DESIGN EARTH
Thursday, May 25th, 17:00-19:00, Zoom
Three geostories
El Hadi talked about the use of speculative architectural and design practices as a way of communicating with the wider public the missing elements of Earth’s representations that could reveal key constituents regarding the climate crisis.
El Hadi is an associate professor of architecture and the director of the master of urban design at the University of Michigan. He is founding partner of the practice DESIGN EARTH with Rania Ghosn. His research investigates aesthetic forms of environmental engagement to visualize how urban systems transform the Earth. DESIGN EARTH has exhibited widely in venues such as the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Sharjah Biennial, the Times Museum in Guangzhou, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon. The work of DESIGN EARTH has been collected by the Museum of Modern Art. It has been awarded prizes internationally, including the Architectural League of New York’s Prize for Young Architects + Designers, Jacques Rougerie Foundation’s First Prize, and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Faculty Design Awards. El Hadi is co-author of Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment (New York: Actar, 2018) and Geographies of Trash (New York: Actar, 2015). He is founding editor of New Geographies and editor-in-chief of NG 4: Scales of the Earth (Harvard GSD, 2010). His recent writings have been published in the Journal of Architectural Education, the Avery Review, Thresholds, Topos, Domus, Abitare, Pidgin, ARQ Magazine, Volume, Harvard Design Magazine, MONU, and San Rocco.
El Hadi holds a Doctorate of Design from Harvard University, a Master of Architecture from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Architecture from La Cambre in Brussels.
Daphne Dragona is an independent curator, theorist and writer based in Berlin. Among her topics of interest have been: the controversies of connectivity, the promises of the commons, the importance of affective infrastructures, the ambiguous role of technology in relation to the climate crisis. Some of her curated -or co-curated- exhibitions are: Weather Engines (Onassis Stegi & National Observatory of Athens, 2022), Stefania Strouza, 212 Medea: Recited from and Empty Middle (AnnexM, Megaron, Athens, 2021), Trials & Errors (Romantso, Athens, 2021) Reprogramming Earth (NeMe, Limassol, 2020) Kyriaki Goni, Counting Craters on the Moon (Aksioma, 2019), Tomorrows, Urban fictions for possible futures (Diplareios, Athens, 2017), Capture All (transmediale, Berlin, 2015), Afresh, a new generation of Greek artists (ΕΜSΤ, 2013), Homo Ludens Ludens (Laboral, Gijon, 2008). Articles of hers have been published in various books, journals, magazines, and exhibition catalogs by the likes of Springer, Sternberg Press, Diaphanes, and Leonardo Electronic Almanac. Talks of hers have been hosted at Mapping Festival (Geneva), MoMA (New York), Hek (Basel), Arts in Society (London), Leuphana University (Lueneburg) and Single ContentGoethe University (Frankfurt). Dragona has worked as curator for transmediale festival (Berlin) from 2015 until 2019, and more recently for EMAF (Osnabrück) for the editions of 2021 and 2022. She holds a PhD from the Faculty of Communication & Media Studies of the University of Athens. Daphne Dragona is a member of the 5th SNF Artist Fellowship Program Selection Committee.
