Homo Novus 2015

Programme

Imagine 2020

together with Cape Farewell
12 November 15.00-20.00, Kaņepes Kultūras centrs | Free entrance

We have arrived at a critical point, where it is becoming more and more difficult to pretend that depletion of natural resources, climate change, local and global inequalities, radicalisation of opinions and the consequences of all these processes have nothing to do with us. The question is no longer whether there has to be change and whether there will be change. The question is how it will happen. This time instead of talking about the world we currently live in we will attempt to talk about the world we want to live in the future and how we could get there.

Programme curated by Cape Farewell

15.00-17.00
Nessie Reid
Panel discussion and workshop: Our food: our stories
Food is a deeply personal, emotional experience. However, the food choices we make are also highly political. The workshop by political ecologist and performance artist Nessie Reid will explore and debate what role the individual has in shaping a food system that is not only a healthy one, but also serves the longevity and well-being of our planet. This session will include a short film screening, an informal panel discussion with artists, farmers, growers and activists and then a workshop exploring our connection to food and farming.

17.00-18.00
Lucy Wood
Talk: Arts for Agency + Climate Action
The technology, resources and knowledge to move towards a post-carbon society exist, but what we lack so crucially is the broad, civic momentum to respond to the urgency – and significant opportunities – of this transition. It is vital that climate-focused arts reach as wide and varied an audience as possible. Diversity is critically important in the climate battle, enabling the society-wide engagement it demands. Programming innovative, lateral artworks and engagement programmes can help move urgency of climate action out of more rarefied gallery spaces (and their attendant echo-chamber) and into our streets, our schools, our offices, and our institutions. Rather than looking darkly into a distant dystopian future, its vital to make climate change relevant in the here and now – the air we breathe, the food we eat, the way we travel etc.

18.00-19.00
Dr. Tom Payne
Case study: COPelgangster21: performing resistance in climates of oppression
In late 2015 – with Paris reeling from the effects of the November terror attacks and a national state of emergency imposed – journalists, environmentalists, activists and artists descended on the city to show solidarity, debate and agitate as part of a cultural movement seeking to highlight and respond to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21). The national state of emergency in France radically altered the social and cultural landscape, and edicts forbidding political gatherings re-defined permissible forms of protest and resistance. Many of those who had arrived intending to apply pressure to world leaders and negotiators charged with reaching a critical agreement on limits to global temperature rise had to reconfigure pre-planned public responses and interventions. Tom Payne reflects upon the challenges faced by UK/Australian performance company Doppelgangster when making and presenting work in this highly pressured context.

19.00-20.00
Jane Levi
Case study: Edible Utopia: growing, cooking and eating as expressions of a better world
No matter what our dreams for the future might be, there is no escaping the need to feed ourselves, and in the context of climate change the structure of our current and future food systems becomes an ever more pressing concern. For the last 18 months a team of cultural practitioners has been working on Edible Utopia for Somerset House in central London. Initiated as part of Utopia 2016 (commemorating the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s text) and inspired by the radical, holistic ‘gastrosophie’ of early nineteenth century utopian socialist Charles Fourier, Edible Utopia proposes a creative yet practical approach to collaborative growing, cooking and eating in the heart of the city. Levi will discuss Fourier’s ideas in the context of the current project proposal asking whether and how an Edible Utopia might be realised.

About Cape Farewell
Speakers

12

November

15.00-20.00

Kaņepes Kultūras centrs

Free entrance

Language

In English

Supported by

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