Alserkal announces partnership to fight climate change through art
Three artists will present public art installations as part of the new Global Co-Commission Project, created by Alserkal Advisory and the Global Cultural Districts Network.
Alserkal Avenue in Dubai will display works by Saudi visual artist Muhannad Shono, while Kingston Creative in Jamaica will present the work of visual artist Camille Chedda, and Victoria Yards in Johannesburg will host interdisciplinary artist Io Makandal. The project, called A Feral Commons, is curated by Tairone Bastien under the theme of climate change.
Each artist will develop a site-specific art installation in response to the climate crisis, while exploring the relationships between people and the environment. The project is a collaboration with the Global Cultural Districts Network, an independent association that aims to improve the quality of urban life through arts and draw attention to issues.
Vilma Jurkute, executive director of Alserkal Initiatives said the Global Co-Commission project reflects the cultural districts’ power to act concertedly in times of global crisis. “Working with artists across three continents, the Global Co-Commission intends to inspire new narratives of possibility, ultimately creating public art that is both responsible and impactful,” she said. She added that the Feral Commons project “reappraises the conditions of artistic production and re-evaluates public art in non-western contexts”.
“While each of the works is entirely contextualised, they jointly articulate our collective mission which, grounded in ecological thinking, has given us a mutual sense of ‘nearness’ between Johannesburg, Kingston and Dubai,” she said.
“These artists are reimagining the terms of public art in the face of climate change by making site-specific works that are not only aesthetically compelling, but that are also functional and generative,” Bastien said. “Through research, dialogue and working closely with stakeholders in their respective cultural district, each artist’s work seeks to feed back into a feral ecology, bringing awareness to local environmental issues and facilitating greater interspecies respect and collaboration,” he added.
Interested in the wild and unplanned environments within an urban landscape, Shono’s work is often structured around strong narratives which include personal, historical and social elements. For his installation, he will be looking at the connections between art and nature. Chedda explores postcolonial identity in Jamaica, the Caribbean and African diaspora. She will be working with a local park that is overgrown and neglected. She plans to give the space new life and encourage future generations to maintain it.
Makandal’s artistic practice in Johannesburg is concerned with ecologies in the urban environment and society’s obsession with development. She will be creating an installation to comment on the overlooked and contaminated Jukskei river which runs through Victoria Yards.
The three installations are expected to be unveiled later this year.