Making and Unmaking Exhibitions — Sustainability in Times of Planetary Crisis

Thu 01 – Tue 27 Apr 2021
Fri 02 Apr 2021 12:30
Tue 06 Apr 2021 20:00
Tue 20 Apr 2021 20:00
Tue 27 Apr 2021 12:30
Tue 27 Apr 2021 20:00

Live on our Twitch channel
 

No reservation needed. To ask questions during the lecture, please create a Twitch account

In English

The Centre culturel suisse. Paris and the design research and publishing platform Futuress now propose a series of lectures reflecting on a more sustainable cultural sector, which will take a self-critical look at the social and political ramifications of our quest for more just futures for all. Since sustainability touches on issues of climate, space, diversity, and social justice, the program invites curators, museum directors, artists, designers, and community organizers to tackle these topics from their varied respective perspectives.

Online lecture series during the month of April, followed by publication of the texts on Futuress.org.

“Pandemics do not materialize in isolation,” historian of science Edna Bonhomme has rightly pointed out. “They are part and parcel of capitalism and colonization.” A crisis brings to light the hidden cracks in a system as well as the invisible (infra)structures that support it. The things that don’t work suddenly become glaringly obvious. This is particularly true of the cultural sector, one of the many economic sectors decimated by the COVID-19 crisis. Museums and cultural spaces around the world were among the first to be forced to close their doors. With tourism halted nearly everywhere on the planet, the communities involved were hit hard, both socially and economically; artists and cultural professionals were plunged into a state of extreme economic and social disarray. Moreover, confined populations, unable to share and celebrate their heritage—especially their intangible cultural heritage—have suffered the loss of fundamental and structuring cultural elements in their everyday social and individual lives. While some museums have reopened, with significant restrictions, others are still facing the consequences of the crisis behind closed doors. 

Despite the challenges posed by this unprecedented crisis, many cultural institutions have continued to serve as a source of resilience and support to their communities, imagining and devising new ways to provide broad access to culture, education, and more. Against this backdrop, the Centre culturel suisse and the feminist platform for design politics Futuress proposes a series of lectures and accompanying essays on how the cultural sector, and in particular, exhibitions, are critically self-examining their social and political ramifications, and proposing new pathways for more just futures for all. With an eye to how sustainability translates into concerted action on climate, spatial, and social justice, the program invites curators and artists to tackle these topics from their varied respective perspectives.

Coproduction: CCS and Futuress.org

 

Program

April 2 -12:30 PM
Srijan-Abartan—a workshop for exhibition making at the heart of the Dhaka Art Summit 2020
Roundtable with Diana Campbell Betancourt, Prem Krishnamurthy, Dries Rodet, Inteza Shariar, moderated by Nina Paim
+

April 6 - 8 PM
More of what we don’t see
Lecture by Keyna Eleison, Co-Artistic Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro
+

April 20 - 8 PM
Trees in Forests, Webs, Onions
Lecture by Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London
+

April 27 - 12:30 PM
Exhibiting for Earthly Habitability: Curating more-than-human and other-human climate ecologies
Lecture by Fiona Cameron, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
+

April 27 - 8 PM
Wet Paint
Lecture by Ramaya Tegegne, artist and cultural organizer based in Geneva
+

Partnership

Coproduction : CCS and Futuress.org

Thu 01 – Tue 27 Apr 2021
Fri 02 Apr 2021 12:30
Tue 06 Apr 2021 20:00
Tue 20 Apr 2021 20:00
Tue 27 Apr 2021 12:30
Tue 27 Apr 2021 20:00