Overview
Cross(x)Species Adventure Club. Table View.Natalie Jeremijenko. Photo credit: Emilie Baltz
An exhibition presented by the National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA), COFA, UNSW in association with the Danish Arts Agency and City of Sydney.
In Curating Cities: Sydney-Copenhagen, five influential projects evoke the city as part of an ecology affected by human action. Each develops new ways of visualising the environmental impact of human activity or of promoting practical strategies for change.
The exhibition launches a 5-year research project, founded in the idea of deploying art and design to curate (literally ‘care for’) the city. It focuses on the use of creative strategies to meet the challenges of creating eco-sustainable urban environments.
This keynote exhibition Curating Cities: Sydney-Copenhagen highlights the fundamentals of sustainability: carbon reduction, consumption, and food production.
In the central atrium of Customs House, Digital Urban Living (Denmark), construct a sculpture that changes colour and sound in response to the fluctuating levels of carbon across the city. Atmosphere—the sound and sight of CO2 is complemented by Natural Fuse—a network of carbon sinking plants, the life (or death) of which depends on the amount of C02 produced by the household appliances with which they are networked, created by Haque: Design + Research (UK).
Exhibits from Co2penhagen (Denmark), including energy-generating bikes, offer a sampling of the world’s first C02 neutral festival, while Flooded McDonald’s, a stunning video installation by Danish artists Superflex, poetically evokes the impact of climate change on the kind of industries that have contributed to it.
As a counterpoint to the apocalyptic Flooded McDonald’s, a project by Australian artist Natalie Jeremijenko xClinic Farmacy promises to turn any city dweller into an urban farmer (UFarmer), by demonstrating how we can eat our way to a biodiverCITY.
The exhibition runs concurrently with Try This At Home (Object Gallery), which looks at how city-dwellers can exercise agency in response to climate change, recognizing that we are each designing the future through everyday actions.
Curators: Jill Bennett, Margaret Farmer, Felicity Fenner, Rachael Kiang
Dates: 17-27 November 2011 (main exhibition); some exhibits remain until 18 December; e-tenzor bikes until 24 November only
Artists & Artworks
 DUL |
 Haque Design+Research |
 Natalie Jeremijenko+ Carbon Arts |
 Natalie Jeremijenko+ Mihir Desai + Carbon Arts |
 Superflex |
 Katrine Vejby + Nina Louise Jensen |
Venue
Ground floor, Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay, Sydney
Hours: Mon-Fri 8:00am – midnight
Sat 10:00am – midnight
Sun: 11:00am -5:00pm
Free Admission
Ticketed Events
Curating Cities Conference: Tuesday 22 November, 9:00am-6.30pm
Barnet Long Room, Level 1, Customs House
Farmacy Ag Bag Workshop: Monday 21 November, 2:00pm-5:00pm
Library Community Meeting Room, Level 2, Customs House
Public Program
As an extension of the Curating Cities:Sydney-Copenhagen exhibition, NIEA, in association with Carbon Arts ,is offering a workshop led by Natalie Jeremijenko on 21 November 2011, at which participants may create their own Ag Bag, a take-home urban farm.
Date: Monday 21 November; Time: 2:00-5:00pm
Conference
The Curating Cities: Sydney-Copenhagen conference will include presentations by leading Danish architect and city planner Jan Gehl, the Lord Mayors of Sydney and Copenhagen and leading artists and thinkers from Australia and Denmark. Artist Natalie Jeremijenko will also create an edible cocktail for conference participants.
Date: Tuesday 22 November; 9:00am – 6:30pm
The Curating Cities research project is a collaboration between NIEA, City of Sydney, Object: Australian Centre for Design, Carbon Arts and University of Cincinnati, funded by the Australian Research Council. Curating Cities: Sydney-Copenhagen coincides with State of Green. Join the Future. Think Denmark.
Organising Institution
Partners
