Tuesday 1 March 2022
Cultural Reforesting Explores – Sustainable Actions
Cultural Reforesting encourages everyone to explore the natural world through art. The 3-year programme was launched in 2021 with an exhibition called Remember the Future, which included four artist-research residencies, as well as various events and discussions. Alongside this, our enthusiastic volunteer team has worked on the Cultural Reforesting Explores project, delving more deeply into the themes and ideas of the programme.
Join volunteers Liv Wood and Vanessa Portugal as they discuss the topics of their own research as part of a project to complement the programme. They were also part of a volunteer focus group on Cultural Reforesting, which frames some of the discussion, and have both been volunteering at Orleans House Gallery since 2020. This conversation is a great introduction into the programme’s topics throughout the 2021 programme.
Liv’s research focused on Culture Declares Emergency, an international movement within the cultural sector. Started in 2019 by artists Ackroyd & Harvey, the movement has been backed by 1,750 declarers of very different disciplines and backgrounds, from independent artists to large organisations like Tate and the BFI.
Those in arts and culture are not the only ones declaring emergency: architects, engineers, and scientists worldwide are coming together to do the same within their sectors. What those who join the movement do is up to them — all contributions are different, and every effort helps as we begin to take collective action in the face of climate emergency.
Vanessa’s research focused on ways to prevent ecocide, which is the mass damage and destruction of ecosystems. Her work explored social, cultural, economic and political aspects, as well as the human relationship with the environment.
Liv and Vanessa discuss the Grantham Art Prize Mural and you can read more about this here
and find out about the North London Apothecary.
Further clarity around Vanessa’s research:
In face of a lack of major policy to prevent ecocide, most laws encourage eco-friendly practices. It is worth noting that while certain communities, especially in diverse growing countries, carry the burden of preventing ecocide and climate change, ultimately it is up to each person to motivate and design the best practice to contribute. It seems important to pay attention to certain sociological and psychological observations about the relation of humans with the environment. For example, our easier response to the word ‘green’ than to the word ‘eco’, can lead to its preferred use to direct a friendlier and clear message about taking care of the environment.
An important obstacle to tackle at caring for our environment is the awareness that it is a living being and is affected by everyone’s actions. Acknowledging that environmentally friendly practices cannot undo or compensate the initial harm to the environment can lead us to a genuine care in as much at a personal level as at a national one.
A way out of the ecocide resulted from the eco-guilt, that is, the contradiction of facing collective harm with personal ‘green’ acts, is to remember that the problem is global, and that we must assume diverse practices like ’degrow’ and ‘slow down’; degrow which means not only to consume less but also to adapt the food production to lesser consuming, slow down consumption and on behaviour of human life, mostly life in the cities, including work, learning, production, transport and architectural development.