Ecologies is Serpentine’s department committed to planetary thriving. We support this vision through research, programmes, commissions, infrastructural work and network-building.
For the last decade, Serpentine has been at the forefront of supporting environmental and ecological thinking by artists. In 2014, the Extinction Marathon, curated with artist Gustav Metzger, raised a powerful call against the extinction of species and ways of knowing. In 2018, Serpentine launched the General Ecology project, founded by Lucia Pietroiusti, as a multi-disciplinary project dedicated to environmental justice and balance through art and organisational transformation. Out of this grew Back to Earth, Serpentine’s multi-year project that brought together over 100 artists’ environmental campaigns. Opened in 2023 as an evolution of these experiments, the department of Serpentine Ecologies has developed a holistic, flexible and adaptive approach to embedding environmental purpose throughout Serpentine’s activities. We aim to place culture right into the heart of environmental efforts, and support the cultural sector to strengthen its environmental commitments.
