In this brief talk, Lucia Pietroiusti will discuss three current projects that address cultural institutions’ possible roles and agency in working towards environmental justice and balance: General Ecology, an experiment in simultaneous programmatic and systemic change; Back to Earth, an environmentally committed and networked mode of program-making; and the forthcoming work of the General Ecology Network, an attempt to weave these into methodologies, through interorganizational collaboration. Guiding this will be a set of considerations around the inextricability of metaphor from material, or of abstraction from ontology.
Lucia Pietroiusti (she/her) is the Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London as well as the curator of Sun & Sea (Marina) by Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte, the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (and 2020-2022 international tour). At the Serpentine, Pietroiusti founded, programmes and curates the long-term General Ecology project. General Ecology is a strategic, cross-organisational effort dedicated to the implementation of ecological principles throughout the Galleries’ public-facing programmes, internal infrastructure, and networks. General Ecology has presented live events, radio programmes, publications as well as ongoing research projects. Pietroiusti is also a co-curator of Back to Earth - the Serpentine’s 50th anniversary programme, dedicated to the environment (ongoing), which invites 65+ artists to devise environmental campaigns, prototypes or interventions in artwork form. Pietroiusti was the co-founder and co-curator of the Serpentine Podcast since 2015 (with Eva Jäger, Ben Vickers and Kay Watson). Ongoing projects include The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (Serpentine homepage / web portal and broadcast platform) an interdisciplinary festival, radio and publication series on consciousness and intelligence across species (with Filipa Ramos, Giles Round, Holly Shuttleworth and Kostas Stasinopoulos, since 2018). Pietroiusti is one of the curators of the 2020/21 Shanghai Biennale (with Marina Otero Verzier, Filipa Ramos, You Mi. Chief Curator: Andrés Jaque). In 2022-23, Pietroiusti will join James Bridle in curating a section of the Helsinki Festival, dedicated to artificial and more-than-human intelligences. Publications include More-than-Human (with Andrés Jaque and Marina Otero Verzier, 2020); Microhabitable (with Fernando García-Dory, forthcoming in 2021); PLANTSEX (MAL Journal, 2019) and Sun & Sea (Marina) (2019).
Making and Unmaking Exhibitions
Sustainability in Times of Planetary Crisis
The Centre culturel suisse. Paris and the design research and publishing platform Futuress now propose a series of lectures reflecting on a more sustainable cultural sector, which will take a self-critical look at the social and political ramifications of our quest for more just futures for all. Since sustainability touches on issues of climate, space, diversity, and social justice, the program invites curators, museum directors, artists, designers, and community organizers to tackle these topics from their varied respective perspectives.
A Coproduction by the Centre culturel suisse. Paris and Futuress.org
April 2, 2021 | 12:30 PM CEST
Srijan-Abartan: Workshop for Exhibition Making and Unmaking
Roundtable with Diana Campbell Betancourt, Prem Krishnamurthy, Dries Rodet, Inteza Shariar, moderated by Nina Paim
April 6, 2021 | 9 pm CEST
More of what we don’t see
Lecture by Keyna Eleison, Co-Artistic Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro
April 20, 2021 | 9 pm CEST
Trees in Forests, Webs, Onions
Lecture by Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London
April 27, 2021 | 12:30 PM CEST
Exhibiting for Earthly Habitability
Lecture by Fiona Cameron, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
April 27, 2021 | 9 pm CEST
Wet Paint
Lecture by Ramaya Tegegne, Artist and Cultural Organizer based in Geneva
In this brief talk, Lucia Pietroiusti will discuss three current projects that address cultural institutions’ possible roles and agency in working towards environmental justice and balance: General Ecology, an experiment in simultaneous programmatic and systemic change; Back to Earth, an environmentally committed and networked mode of program-making; and the forthcoming work of the General Ecology Network, an attempt to weave these into methodologies, through interorganizational collaboration. Guiding this will be a set of considerations around the inextricability of metaphor from material, or of abstraction from ontology.
Lucia Pietroiusti (she/her) is the Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London as well as the curator of Sun & Sea (Marina) by Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte, the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (and 2020-2022 international tour). At the Serpentine, Pietroiusti founded, programmes and curates the long-term General Ecology project. General Ecology is a strategic, cross-organisational effort dedicated to the implementation of ecological principles throughout the Galleries’ public-facing programmes, internal infrastructure, and networks. General Ecology has presented live events, radio programmes, publications as well as ongoing research projects. Pietroiusti is also a co-curator of Back to Earth - the Serpentine’s 50th anniversary programme, dedicated to the environment (ongoing), which invites 65+ artists to devise environmental campaigns, prototypes or interventions in artwork form. Pietroiusti was the co-founder and co-curator of the Serpentine Podcast since 2015 (with Eva Jäger, Ben Vickers and Kay Watson). Ongoing projects include The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (Serpentine homepage / web portal and broadcast platform) an interdisciplinary festival, radio and publication series on consciousness and intelligence across species (with Filipa Ramos, Giles Round, Holly Shuttleworth and Kostas Stasinopoulos, since 2018). Pietroiusti is one of the curators of the 2020/21 Shanghai Biennale (with Marina Otero Verzier, Filipa Ramos, You Mi. Chief Curator: Andrés Jaque). In 2022-23, Pietroiusti will join James Bridle in curating a section of the Helsinki Festival, dedicated to artificial and more-than-human intelligences. Publications include More-than-Human (with Andrés Jaque and Marina Otero Verzier, 2020); Microhabitable (with Fernando García-Dory, forthcoming in 2021); PLANTSEX (MAL Journal, 2019) and Sun & Sea (Marina) (2019).
Making and Unmaking Exhibitions
Sustainability in Times of Planetary Crisis
The Centre culturel suisse. Paris and the design research and publishing platform Futuress now propose a series of lectures reflecting on a more sustainable cultural sector, which will take a self-critical look at the social and political ramifications of our quest for more just futures for all. Since sustainability touches on issues of climate, space, diversity, and social justice, the program invites curators, museum directors, artists, designers, and community organizers to tackle these topics from their varied respective perspectives.
A Coproduction by the Centre culturel suisse. Paris and Futuress.org
April 2, 2021 | 12:30 PM CEST
Srijan-Abartan: Workshop for Exhibition Making and Unmaking
Roundtable with Diana Campbell Betancourt, Prem Krishnamurthy, Dries Rodet, Inteza Shariar, moderated by Nina Paim
April 6, 2021 | 9 pm CEST
More of what we don’t see
Lecture by Keyna Eleison, Co-Artistic Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro
April 20, 2021 | 9 pm CEST
Trees in Forests, Webs, Onions
Lecture by Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London
April 27, 2021 | 12:30 PM CEST
Exhibiting for Earthly Habitability
Lecture by Fiona Cameron, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
April 27, 2021 | 9 pm CEST
Wet Paint
Lecture by Ramaya Tegegne, Artist and Cultural Organizer based in Geneva
