An open discussion with T. J. Demos
Moderated by Andrea Garcia Vasquez and Eleni Michaelidi
How can we pursue climate action with(in) art museums? Recognising that steps taken so far are not effective enough to achieve net zero by 2030, we need to address the climate emergency even more drastically. Art institutions are no exception – apart from further reducing emissions, they must help communities cope with current and projected climate change impacts, and engage with deeply transformative processes. Change is coming, either way.
In light of the intensifying climate crisis, GfZK is addressing its ecological impact through actively looking for ways to reduce the institution’s carbon footprint. In preparation of Things That Were Are Things Again (May 2023), its first attempt ever to create a climate-neutral collection exhibition, GfZK invites the critically acclaimed writer and art theorist T. J. Demos (Professor of Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz) for an open discussion with the public, moderated by artist Andrea Garcia Vasquez (HGB Leipzig) and curator Eleni Michaelidi (KdFS Fellow).
T. J. Demos writes about contemporary art and global politics. He is Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture at University of California, Santa Cruz, and founding Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. He researches the intersection of visual culture, radical politics, and political ecology, and is the author of numerous books, including Radical Futurisms (Sternberg, 2023 forthcoming); Beyond the World’s End: Arts of Living at the Crossing (Duke, 2020); Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and Political Ecology (Sternberg, 2016); and Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today (Sternberg, 2017). He recently co-edited The Routledge Companion on Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change (2021), was a Getty Research Institute Fellow (Spring 2020), and directed the Mellon Foundation-funded Sawyer Seminar research project “Beyond the End of the World” (2019–21). Demos is also Chair and Chief Curator of the Climate Collective, providing public programming related to the 2021 “Climate Emergency › Emergence” program at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Maat) in Lisbon, and is currently Fellow at Center for Advanced Film Studies Cinepoetics at the Freie Universität Berlin.
The event takes place in English
Free admission. No prior registration required, seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis
Supported by Programm Zero – Klimaneutrale Kunst- und Kulturprojekte der Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Supported by der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien