Sites of… Practice is a yearly programme that supports the emergence of a new field of practice in the face of the polycrisis.
Sites of… Practice is a year-long support infrastructure project curated by Lucia Pietroiusti (Head of Ecologies, at Serpentine, London) and Helen Turner (Artistic Director and Chief Curator, E-WERK Luckenwalde), in collaboration with curator Nada Rosa Schroer. It is hosted by E-WERK Luckenwalde, Germany, and commissioned by Arising Quo.
Sites Of…Practice responds to an emergent field of art- and design-led experiments in site-specific, alternative organisational models. Working across pedagogy, cultural production, agriculture, social design and environmental repair. These sites bring together organisational and ecological thinking to move beyond awareness-raising. These are spaces where artists, culture-makers, political and ecological thinkers are gathering, building, making and creating while remaining responsive to their specific contexts. Rather than making work "about" climate and ecology, these sites are working with land-based contexts to work with and for the climate and their communities - in a way that is growing capacity in those contexts to have greater preparedness and resilience in the face of climate change and the poly-crisis. The “...” in the project title refers to the myriad ways in which these sites are experimenting with different forms of practice. As such, the project’s title is infinitely changeable: Sites of (rooted, situated, reciprocal, reparative, systemic, collective) practice may, and will, emerge.
Responding to a commission – an enquiry question – from Arising Quo, Sites of… Practice supports exchanges between a cohort of small-scale organisations across Europe.
This includes:
- A funding programme: over a 12-month period, each Site will receive a grant of 10,000 euros aimed at supporting capacity-building efforts within each organisation.
- A programme of skills exchange and practical workshops, conceived in collaboration with curator Nada Rosa Schroer, which bring experts to support Sites with practical, hands-on skills in environmental infrastructure, business planning, visioning, strategy and fundraising.
- An in-person retreat for the cohort, taking place in Spring 2025.
- A public symposium and exchange programme and the announcement of Year 2’s cohort in Spring 2025
- The publication of a strategic report focused on strategies for supporting this emergent field of practice, aimed at both those who support and seek support, launching in Spring 2025.
Sites of… Practice will also support participants to be in relationship with each other, to exchange, learn and deepen practice together, so that these practices may become more visible to others and more widely recognised as an emerging field.
The first cohort of Sites is:
Vessel - a collective studio, arts and event space on the island of Aegina, Greece with a core interest in ecology, resilience, and co-education in the context of the Greek islands and the wider Mediterranean.
Estudio Nuboso - a platform for art and ecology based in Panama. Estudio Nuboso’s vision is to restore the relationship between humans and nature as part of the global movement that seeks to create greater reciprocity with the planet.
The Institute for Postnatural Studies - a centre for artistic experimentation from which to explore and problematize postnature as a framework for contemporary creation.
Katzenwedelwiese - an alter-institutional project born during the exhibition Critical Zones that took place at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. This was developed by artist and ecologist Stéphane V. Bottéro to rethink the role of cultural institutions in the context of accelerating climate change and the collapse of the biosphere.
Cuerpoterritorio - a cultural association based in Valencia. . The mission of the association is to promote artistic expression and eco-social awareness through an eco-feminist perspective by materializing values of care towards human and more than human communities.
Are | are-events.org (ARE) - a curatorial organization based in Prague and Orlické Mountains, Czech Republic. In 2019, ARE established Woods – Community for Cultivation, Theory and Art and purchased a 2.8 hectare plot of forest and meadow in the village of Hnátnice in Orlické Mountains, with the aim of creating a sustainable biodiverse forest, animal refuge and garden founded on permaculture principles and to organize cultural outdoor events.
Mustarinda Association is a non-profit group of artists and researchers, founded in 2010, whose goal is to promote the ecological rebuilding of society, the diversity of culture and nature, and the connection between art and science.
Lucia Pietroiusti is Head of Ecologies at Serpentine, London. As a curator, programmer and organisational strategist, she works at the intersection of art, ecology and systems, often outside of the exhibition space.
Helen Turner is the Co-Artistic Director and Chief Curator of E-WERK Luckenwalde, a founding member of Gallery Climate Coalition Berlin, and Advisory board member of Urbane Kunst Ruhr.
Nada Rosa Schroer is an independent curator and researcher based in Cologne. Since 2020 she regularly collaborates with CCA Temporary Gallery, where she curated the programmes "Curating Transformation: Allyship - Degrowth - Grounding" and "Towards Permacultural Institutions“ (both w/ Aneta Rostkowska).
Arising Quo is a wealth redistribution initiative in its early days of exploring where and how to resource work that scaffolds us out of current systems - towards subterranean worlds and liberatory futures - and into new, post capitalist paradigms. Arising Quo is currently resourcing explorations that orient us towards places, practices and horizons we need to pay greater attention to.
For media information
Nicola Jeffs
nj@nicolajeffs.com
