Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet

A man in khaki leaps high into a bright blue sky, arms flung wide and sneakers off the ground, grinning. Behind him on the dusty earth, a row of young men in red cloths stands near low round houses, mid-dance, watching.
Title
Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet
Artist/Creator
Mark Dion, Ann Hamilton, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Marcos Ramírez ERRE, Rigo 23, Dario Robleto, Diana Thater, and Xu Bing
Description
A collaborative artist residency and exhibition project that sent eight leading artists to eight threatened UNESCO World Heritage sites to make new work about the relationships between fragile natural environments and the human communities that depend on them. Co-organized by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego with the international conservation organization Rare, it opened in San Diego in 2008 before coming to Berkeley, and each artist completed two or more residencies between 2005 and 2008. Mark Dion built a supply cart for the under-resourced rangers of Komodo National Park in Indonesia. Ann Hamilton created a poetic text performed by Galápagos schoolchildren, heard against footage of a wavering ocean horizon. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle filmed in Baja California's El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, a gray whale breeding ground threatened by industrial development. Marcos Ramírez ERRE built a wall with residents of Yunnan's Three Parallel Rivers using regional methods, set with video windows onto their lives. Rigo 23 worked with artisans in Brazil's Atlantic Forest to remake a cluster bomb and a nuclear submarine in traditional materials as celebrations of life. Dario Robleto joined a glacier measuring expedition in Waterton Glacier International Peace Park and made sculptures about the disappearance of species and collective mourning. Diana Thater filmed wildlife in South Africa's iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and Xu Bing worked with schoolchildren near Mount Kenya's receding glaciers on artworks built from the Chinese characters for trees, with proceeds supporting reforestation.
Event Type
Exhibition
Date
April 1 – September 27, 2009
Location
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, California
Organizer
Co-organized by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, in partnership with the conservation organization Rare
Affiliated Organizations
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Geographic Scope
International / Global
Climate & Ecology Themes
Biodiversity and Species Loss
Land Stewardship and Conservation
Forests
Oceans and Coasts
Discipline / Field
Arts & Design
Concepts
More-than-Human Relations
Loss and Grief
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Methods & Approaches
Field Research / Fieldwork
Community-Based Practice
Collaborative / Co-Creation
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
bampfa.org
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Berkeley
Media
A man in khaki leaps high into a bright blue sky, arms flung wide and sneakers off the ground, grinning. Behind him on the dusty earth, a row of young men in red cloths stands near low round houses, mid-dance, watching.Xu Bing, Human/Nature residency, Mount Kenya National Park