Global Art Futures:

3 seminars on the critical and creative place and value of art, artists and art education

Birmingham School of Art in partnership with Tate Liverpool present a series of online public events focusing on the critical issues facing art, artists and the art world in the wake of the global pandemic. This is the first of three seminars: Seminar 2 will take place 19.00 – 20.30 Thursday 25 March 2021; Seminar 3 will take place 19.00 – 20.30 Thursday 27 May 2021, with more details to follow.

Seminar 1

19.00 – 20.30

Thursday 4 March 2021

‘On Biennale Ecologies: Climate Solidarities, Pedagogies and Radical Change,’ features curators Lucia Pietroiusti (Curator, General Ecology project, The Serpentine Galleries) and Serubiri Moses (Writer and Curator, Greater New York 2020 exhibition, MoMA PS1).

Our two speakers will each present a short talk, followed by a discussion chaired by Jonathan Harris, formerly Head of Birmingham School of Art.

LUCIA PIETROIUSTI
‘Broken Waters’

Through liquidity, toxicity, infrastructure and ritual, this brief talk discusses a series of artistic and curatorial projects dedicated to, or intersecting with, environmental justice and climate balance. The questions at the core of this presentation are: what role(s) might art be able to play in the environmental effort? What is the place of more-than-human thought across deep time? Can a radical, ecological anthropomorphism resist posthuman nihilisms?

SERUBIRI MOSES

‘The School of Anxiety’

Serubiri Moses will  speak about the performance organised in the Uhuru Park in Nairobi, Kenya, during 2018, in a corner of the park called Freedom Corner’, with trees that were planted there by the National Council of Women in Kenya in honour of the protest against the arrest of political prisoners. It was part of the itinerant learning environment called The School of Anxiety.

Speakers’ biographies:

Lucia Pietroiusti is the Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London as well as 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), At the Serpentine, Pietroiusti founded, programmes and curates the long-term General Ecology project. General Ecology is a strategic, cross-organisational effort dedicated to the implementation of ecological principles throughout the Galleries’ public-facing programmes, internal infrastructure, and networks. General Ecology has presented live events, radio programmes, publications as well as ongoing research projects.

Serubiri Moses is a writer and curator who lives in New York. He is co-curator of Greater New York 2020, MoMA PS1’s survey of contemporary art. Moses was part of the curatorial team for the Berlin Biennale X (2018). From 2013 to 2017 Moses traveled extensively to participate in curatorial residencies, conferences, and juries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. In 2015, Moses held the position of Stadtschreiber at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies and in 2014 he co-curated the second public art biennial in Kampala, KLA ART, entitled Unmapped, and organised a four-volume public program at the Goethe Zentrum Kampala.

This seminar will take place on Microsoft Teams. To register your place, please only book by Eventbrite by clicking here. There are a limited number of places so please book by 13.00, 3 March. Once registration ends you will be emailed the link to join the online event.

Any enquiries should be made to Jonathan.Harris@bcu.ac.uk or Beth.Derbyshire@bcu.ac.uk