COP 26: Creative Responses

02.11.2021

Green Poetry for Change event. Courtesy The Dear Green bothy Project.

As world leaders continue their discussions in Glasgow for COP26, described as “the last best chance to get runaway climate change under control”, a diverse, cultural programme stimulates engagement with environmental issues across Scotland and around the world.

The Dear Green Bothy Project

Organised by the University of Glasgow’s College of the Arts, the Dear Green Bothy Project is a programme of free events and activities at which artists, researchers and communities can gather during COP26. Events include 'Choral Contemplations' with the University's Chapel Choir performing music inspired by COP26, and a 'Games Sustainability Hackathon', exploring new strategies for making board and video games more environmentally conscious.

Climate Change Creative

Established by the Repository of the Undercommons, which in turn came out of a project by the collective Enough! Scotland, in the lead up to COP26, Climate Change Creative issued an open call for art on environmental themes and poster designs, texts and images. Work submitted is currently on show on the group’s website.

Polar Zero, Glasgow Science Centre

Artist Wayne Binitie has long been fascinated by ice. A graduate of the RCA, he has worked with scientists from the British Antarctic Survey to create an immersive exhibition that explores the past, present, and future of our climate. Having extracted ice from the Antarctic, Binitie presents a capsule of air from 1765 and a melting ice core, both previously frozen in time for two and a half centuries. The sculptures in essence were formed a time that predates the industrial revolution before the age of fossil fuels. While COP26 convenes, it’s a chance to think about Antarctic ice as an archive of climate history, and the power of art to make us consider issues bigger than ourselves.

Mobbile, Guztav Metzger

The Common Guild are re-presenting Gustav Metzger's, ‘Mobbile’, a modified car that collects and stores its own carbon emissions. Originally made in 1970 to demonstrate the destructive and harmful effects of manmade pollutants on the natural world, the vehicle - recognisable by the glass box of plants perched on top - will travel to various locations across the city during COP26. The project culminates with a discussion event, 'The Art of Gustav Metzger and Climate Activism' on 3 November, 6 – 8pm, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow.

NO NEW WORLDS, Still/Moving

Placed directly opposite the main COP delegate zone on the Govan Graving Docks, Still/Moving's 70m long, 6m high light sculpture reading 'NO NEW WORLDS' is an unmissable statement and a stark reminder to COP delegates that there is no plan(et) B.

TOTEM LATAMAT, Jun Tiburcio

After travelling 900km from the Totonacapan region in Mexico, through cultural hubs across the UK, TOTEM LATAMAT, a 4.5m tall carved totem, has been installed in The Hidden Gardens in Glasgow for the duration of COP26. Commissioned by ORIGINS festival and carved by Indigenous Totonac artist Jun Tiburcio, TOTEM LATAMAT conveys how deeply interwoven our existence is with nature and calls for immediate action to disrupt the damage done by climate change. After COP26 the totem will be returned to the earth in a ceremony at The Crichton in Dumfries.

The Word for World is Forest

The Word for World Is Forest showcases three perspectives on climate change from different regions of the world. Our People, Our Climate is a ground-breaking documentary film initiative presenting stories by young people from Inuit communities across Canada's Arctic. The German documentary photographer Sophie Reuter also presents a photographic series focusing on the struggle to save the remaining part of the Hambacher forest, located between Cologne and Aachen, which has been decimated in the last decade by the extension of an open pit mine. And finally, the global awareness campaigning charity If Not Us Then Who is showing film and photography that highlights the role indigenous and local people play in protecting our planet.

Code Red, Peter Kennard

Street Level Photoworks has organised an off-site exhibition of hard-hitting photomontages about climate change by Peter Kennard, one of Britain’s foremost political artists. Images of the earth taken by the Apollo astronauts in 1972 are torn, cut and combined with images of industrial chimneys, oil refineries exploding, polluted dust, gas masks, parched earth and floods. The work makes visible the increasing destruction of the natural world as a direct result of human activity.

Calling for Rain, Khvay Samnang

Tramway’s main gallery is presenting a new work for children and young people by Cambodian artist Khvay Samnang. Khvay is a multimedia storyteller whose work combines creativity and social justice, using poetry, ritual and spiritual beliefs to create narratives of resistance and to address environmental issues. In this new film work, Khvay draws on inspiration from a Cambodian epic poem and philosophical allegory dating back to the 7th century, and takes the viewer on a quest to save the dying forests of Cambodia.

 

The UK is host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. For further information on opening times and running dates of the creative responses, visit individual websites.