Human impact on the environment is one of the planet’s greatest challenges. The media reports daily on devastating forest fires and storms, rising temperatures, and rapidly melting glaciers. The exploitation of nature is affecting us ever more and with greater force.
Within artistic research, there is a strong mobilisation around environmental questions, and this symposium highlights the scope and depth of this engagement. The participants work across a range of artistic fields and their projects are often interdisciplinary. Their work explores alternative ways of understanding the relationship between humans and nature, often inspired by Indigenous perspectives.
They examine the underlying ideological and economic causes of the climate crisis and develop methods for acting in harmony with nature. A central aspect of art and artistic research is the ability to concretise and visualise both facts and ideas about alternative ways of living – often combining criticality and hope.
Participants include photo historian Liz Wells; artist and researcher Heide Morstang; poet and researcher Fredrik Nyberg; artist and researcher Eva la Coure-Nielsen, designer and researcher Thomas Laurien; artist and researcher Åsa Stjerna; writer and researcher Sanabel Abdel Rahman; photographer Emil Ryge; and artist and researcher Åsa Sonjasdotter.
More information about the symposium and how to register will be published at the end of August. For any questions, please contact Niclas Östlind: niclas.ostlind@akademinvaland.gu.se
The symposium is organised in memory of Professor Tyrone Martinsson (1967–2025). Based at HDK-Valand, he conducted groundbreaking, photo-historically anchored research on the visualisation of climate change on Svalbard and contributed to establishing and developing international and transdisciplinary research networks.
The symposium is organised in collaboration between the research cluster Environment: Ecology and Climate Challenges at HDK-Valand and the Hasselblad Foundation.
More information about time and place will be available shortly.
