Marc Rees

As I leave Glasgow following a very intensive and thought providing time at COP 26 I shift focus slightly but befittingly to the role of inaugural curator of Pethau Bychain on behalf of WAI. 

At COP much of my time was spent at The Encampment of Eternal Hope, an installation by artists Walker & Bromwich and where Possible Dialogues was hosted for which I presented a talk and provocation. The talk under the title CROMEN(ology) - from genesis, gestation to gleaning focused on two recent works. The incubatory sculpture CROMEN and its subsequent evolution involving ongoing discourse with indigenous Tasmanian artist /activist Dave mangenner Gough and the environmental film I S O S T A S Y made in collaboration with Simon Clode. Both aim to consider and confront the important issues and challenges that have arisen as we re-emerge from the global pandemic and navigate a changed and still shifting cultural landscape and as we confront and tackle the threat of climate catastrophe head-on.

Diálogos Posibles/Possible Dialogues is an initiative to connect social and environmental leaders, activists, artists and academics who have common interests relating to climate change and justice but have not had the opportunity to interact.

It was sparked at the end of 2019 by a conversation between Hector Fabio Yucuna Perea, Youth Coordinator of the Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC) and members of Más Arte Más Acción. They questioned how indigenous peoples’ struggles could be shared in the climate debate and properly considered in climate negotiations that impact on their territories.  Opening out these questions with artists and institutions in Scotland with an interest in environmental justice, Possible Dialogues emerged and in 2020 the coalition met online to build relationships, share knowledge and test ideas. It is now a multi-layered creative project that brings together partners from Scotland and Colombia and was present at COP26, (the global leaders’ climate conference in Glasgow ) within the Encampment of Eternal Hope. 

It was a brilliant opportunity to be a part of Possible Dialogues and offer a Welsh perspective within the context of my ongoing collaboration with Dave. It was then made even more pertinent when I discovered during an interview with Walker & Bromwich that the seeds of The Encampment of Eternal Hope were germinated at a residency in Coed Hills just outside Cardiff, so the roots are Welsh and now transplanted and blooming in Scotland.

Before I share the work of other artists that resonate with the Climate Emergency and/or The Well Being of Future Generations Act over the next month, I want to show you a film from Mas Arte Mas Action and also another one developed during my ‘artist in restoration’ at Taliesin Arts Centre for which via an ACW stabilisation grant I was able to construct  and experiment with CROMEN that resulted in the performative film Carbon 19 > a movement mantra plus a discussion with Dave as part of Creative Landscapes podcast series organised by Articulture and hosted by artist Lisa Heledd Jones.