This public gathering brings together interdisciplinary artists, campaigners and thinkers to address questions of environmental justice and the role of culture in creating it.
Daytime gathering: 1-7pm, free
Concert: Isobella Burnham and Romarna Campbell, in partnership with Tomorrow’s Warriors: 8-10pm, £5/£4 conc, plus £0.98 booking fee.
Booking is required
Contributions from The Ella Roberta Family Foundation will highlight issues of urban air pollution and risks to public health whilst contributions from the Stop Ecocide Foundation will frame this problem within the context of the international conversation around ecocide.
Conversations led by the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development will speak to the role of new frameworks for climate finance in imagining new futures, whilst those led by Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network will draw out connections between climate displacement on a global scale and racial inequity within the context of contemporary Britain.
The programme also features a tapestry of creative interventions across forms including music, movement and performance-lecture. These point to the crucial role of the artist, in an era of ecological crisis and imbalance, of embodying alternative ways of knowing and intuiting new pathways towards equilibrium.
Participants include artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte, social entrepreneur Hilary Cottam, visual artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, activist Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, sociologist William Lez Henry, climate scientist Saleemul Huq, novelist Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, case worker Hera Lorandos, musical performer Love Ssega, Stop Ecocide co-founder Jojo Mehta, environmentalist Eva Peace Mukayiranga, economist Avinash Persaud, legal practitioner Philippe Sands, artist and dancer SERAFINE1369, photographer Sarah Stirk, and evening performances by Isobella Burnham and Romarna Campbell, in partnership with jazz educators Tomorrow’s Warriors.
Programme
1-2:45pm
Listening session: Torkwase Dyson, Breathtaking: On Black Beauty and Other Necessary Indeterminacies (Spatial Test With Drawing, _001), 2021
Introductions: Bettina Korek, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ashish Ghadiali, Lucia Pietroiusti
Conversation: Air quality in Lewisham, with Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, Sarah Stirk and William Lez Henry
Listening Session: Canary, Why Are We in the Coal Mine…? A new sound piece and performance by Love Ssega for Black Chapel
2:45-4:45pm
On the Sun & Sea partnership and University of Exeter’s Arts & Culture: Kris Nelson and Sarah Campbell
Introduction to Serpentine’s long-term project of environmental campaigns, Back to Earth: Rebecca Lewin
Back to Earth panel: Rugile Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelyte, Love Ssega and Hilary Cottam in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist
Performance: SERAFINE1369, It is impossible to say everything here so I leave you with this
Notes on ecocide: Jojo Mehta and Philippe Sands
4:45-7pm
The Imagination of New Futures: Karim Harris, Saleemul Huq, Eva Peace Mukayiranga and Avinash Persaud in conversation with Lucia Pietroiusti
Screening: Janine Benyus in conversation with Kate Raworth, introduced by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Reading and conversation: Ayana Lloyd Banwo, When We Were Birds followed by a conversation with Tamar Clarke-Brown
Building Places of Sanctuary: London Refugee and Migrants Network panel, with Hera Lorandos, moderated by Ashish Ghadiali
Performance-lecture: Kiluanji Kia Henda, Something Happened On the Way to Heaven
8-10pm
Concert: Join artist, bassist, vocalist and composer Isobella Burnham and drummer, producer and composer Romarna Campbell from Tomorrow’s Warriors for a special performance inside the Serpentine Pavilion 2022 Black Chapel by Theaster Gates
Listen to Isobella Burnham’s album, Dancin’ Garuda, on Bandcamp.
Watch a selection of Romarna Campbell performances here.
Isobella Burnham
Isobella is a bassist, vocalist and composer from London. She grew up in Barbados where she soaked up the rich musical culture. Isobella returned to London in January 2018 and has since played bass with Sinead Harnett, Tom Misch, Steamdown and Sampa The Great. The Rotosound, Boss and Sire artist toured around Asia, Europe and Africa playing festivals and headline shows.
Isobella’s debut EP, Dancin’ Garuda, was released in May 2021.
Romarna Campbell
Romarna’s musical storytelling begins with the drums. The nomadic spirit of this exciting drummer, producer and composer lives in her jazz and hip hop-infused music. Her irrepressible energy can be heard on Inherently Political, a super-charged sonic assault on racism that immediately won favour with Anne Frankenstein, Jazz FM’s Tony Minvielle and had her crowned by Jamz Supernova as New Name of the Week.
Her independently released kaleidoscopic debut 25 Songs For My 25th Birthday features Soweto Kinch, Tomeka Reid, Sumi Tonooka and Lady Sanity and takes us deeper into her world of resonant frequencies and conscious vibrations.
Having honed her craft with Berklee College of Music, Tomorrow’s Warriors and the Notebenders, Romarna stands on the shoulders of giants and is drawing inspiration from the view as she beats a path forward that is very much her own.
Curated by Radical Ecology and produced by Holly Shuttleworth. Emilian Isibo: Assistant Curator. Curatorial and production advice from Amaya Jeyarajah Dent, Kris Nelson and Matthew Schmolle. In partnership with: LIFT 2022, Serpentine’s Back to Earth project, We Are Lewisham, The Ella Roberta Family Foundation, Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network, University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, University of Exeter Arts & Culture, University of Exeter Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, UCL’s Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism & Racialisation, UCL Anthropocene, L-Acoustics & Open Society Foundations. Radical Ecology is supported by the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation.
