Panel discussion #4 Entanglements of Social, Environmental and Climate Justice

online event, English language

GUESTS: Ayọ̀ Akínwándé, Rebecca Abena Kennedy-Asante (Black Earth Kollektiv), Fossil Free Culture NL, MODERATION: Ayasha Guerin

Ayọ̀ Akínwándé is an interdisciplinary artist, architect, curator, and writer based in Edinburgh. Working across lens-based media, installation, sound, and performance, he deals with topics related to politics and power structures. Power dynamics in democratic discourse, and the relationship between the “powerful” and the “powerless” as it manifests in the multi-faceted layers of more-than-human realities.

Fossil Free Culture (FFC) is a collective of artists, activists and researchers working at the intersection of art and climate justice activism. Founded by Teresa Borasino and Daniela Paes Leao, they have successfully worked to eradicate fossil fuel sponsorship in the Dutch cultural sector. FFC designs campaigns that consist of participatory performances, public interventions, films, graphics, objects, and subvertising editorial material challenging the ties between fossil fuel corporations and cultural institutions. Following their interventions, the Van Gogh Museum ended its sponsorship agreement with Shell in 2018, the Concertgebouw followed in 2020 and Nemo Science Museum in 2021.

Rebecca Abena Kennedy-Asante (Abeni) studied naturopathy, nature conservation and ecology in Berlin and Potsdam. In addition to Abenis botanical interests, Abeni is concerned with how the oppression of marginalised groups and the exploitation of ecosystems are linked. Abeni is part of Black Earth, a BIPoC Environmental & Climate Justice collective, which is centering anti-racist, queer, and ecosystem perspectives through its existence and actions.

Ayasha Guerin is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and curator who lives between Berlin and Vancouver. She holds a PhD from New York University, American Studies, and is currently Assistant Professor of Black Diaspora Studies at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English. Ayasha Guerin is invested in art practices that are also forms of activism and believes a responsibility of the research profession is to make knowledge accessible through public actions and exhibitions.

This event is part of the project Fossil Experience by Prater Galerie. More information about the exhibition and program can be found here.

Fossil Experience is supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds, LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin, and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, kindly supported by Förderband Kulturinitiative Berlin and Schankhalle Pfefferberg.

Prater Galerie