Back to Earth, Serpentine’s long-term project dedicated to the environment and the climate emergency presents a day-long programme of talks, workshops, sound commissions, augmented reality and publications.
All events take place in and around the Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace and will be accessible via live stream. Please join our live stream below from 2pm – 7pm, Saturday 19th June 2021.
Programme, Saturday 19 June 2021
All day: Tomás Saraceno: Webs of Life
Serpentine Pavilion & Kensington Gardens
No booking required
A new Augmented Reality app, Webs of Life, by Tomás Saraceno with Acute Art, introducing audiences to the extraordinary physicality of spiders, their reading of the world through the webs they weave, and encouraging greater awareness and protection of their habitats.
10am-1pm: Brian Eno sound commission
Serpentine Pavilion
Experience Brian Eno’s Back to Earth sound commission, a work devised site-specifically for the Serpentine Pavilion 2020+1 by Counterspace. Eno has composed a layered, stratified construction of sonic material that moves through the structure, from the earth beneath visitors’ feet to the space above their heads.
11am-12pm: Webs of Life, a walk
Kensington Gardens
Walk starts outside Serpentine Pavilion and will not be live streamed. Please note social distancing will be required.
A guided walk about spiders in Kensington Gardens by Peter Lawrence, Biodiversity Manager at The Royal Parks and Charlie Linton, Learning Assistant on Mission: Invertebrate at The Royal Parks on the occasion of the launch of Tomás Saraceno’s AR app, Webs of Life.
2-2: 30pm: CLIMAVORE, a conversation
Serpentine Pavilion & online
A conversation with spatial practitioners Cooking Sections and Shane Kavanagh, Commercial Director of Benugo, on Cooking Sections’ long-term project, CLIMAVORE and their Back to Earth initiative, moderated by Lucia Pietroiusti, Serpentine Curator of General Ecology.
3:-3:30pm: POWER PACK: Climate Emergency, a conversation
Serpentine Pavilion & online
A conversation between artists Rudy Loewe and Jacob V Joyce and Laurél Hadleigh from LION (Land in Our Names) moderated by Alex Thorp, Serpentine Education Curator. Loewe and Joyce are creators of Power Pack: Climate Emergency, a toolkit for young people that platforms BIPOC (Black/Indigenous/People of Colour) climate activists. Copies of Power Pack: Climate Emergency will be available throughout the day alongside the launch of a new website featuring five videos that offer ways to activate the pack.
4pm: Webs of Life introduction
Daniel Birnbaum, Director of Acute Art, introduces Webs of Life by Tomás Saraceno, a Serpentine Back to Earth project presented in collaboration with Acute Art.
4.15-5pm: Back to Earth, a conversation
Serpentine Pavilion & online
A panel on Back to Earth initiatives as well as the role of art towards the environmental effort. Participants include artists Torkwase Dyson and Brian Eno who will discuss their Back to Earth sound commissions. Moderated by Serpentine Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist.
6-7pm: 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth, book launch
Serpentine Pavilion & online
140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth: Book launch of the first Back to Earth publication in collaboration with Penguin, featuring Hilary Cottam, Es Devlin, Sumayya Vally and The Otolith Group who will share instructions, ideas, rituals and gestures.
