Photo credit: HURT EARTH © 2021 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY DACS, UK, photo Adam Kenrick
- Prominent public art installations in the UK convey and amplify calls of the most vulnerable demanding urgent climate action at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland
- Including public art collaboration with US artist Jenny Holzer, HURT EARTH: a series of light projections across the UK featuring testimonies from the 48-member nation Climate Vulnerable Forum and other groups
- Poets of the Agam Agenda featured in light projections and street hubs throughout Glasgow, with verse from Indonesia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Tanzania, and the Philippines
- Excerpts from Agam Agenda’s climate literature anthology, Harvest Moon: Poets and Stories from the Edges of the Climate Crisis (which will be published in December 2021), amplify the demands of climate vulnerable nations
Public art and poets demand urgent climate action at COP26
“We take great pride in helping foment a global poetry rebellion instigated by poets and leaders from climate vulnerable countries, working with leaders of the Climate Vulnerable Forum in collaboration with artist Jenny Holzer, whose work to illuminate UK landmarks continues to draw attention to the climate crisis,” said Padmapani Perez, lead strategist of the Agam Agenda, which is behind the global When Is Now campaign. With high visibility in Glasgow, Scotland, light projections and street hubs today feature verse and pleas by poets and activists from Indonesia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Tanzania, and the Philippines.
Holzer’s public art, HURT EARTH, is on public display to coincide with COP26. The artwork is a collection of haunting, inspiring, and expert testimony in collaboration with the Agam Agenda, Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), and many more.
Alongside testimonies from Sir David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, Mohamed Nasheed, and 40 other climate leaders and activists, contributors of the Agam Agenda whose writings are featured in the light projections are:
- Gawani Domogo Gaongen, Philippines (translated from the original Kankanaey into English by the author)
- Islam Juma Kapera, Tanzania (translated from the original Swahili by Kelly Askew in consultation with Abdilatif Abdalla)
- Shirley Campbell Barr, Costa Rica (translated from the original Spanish into English by Alexandra Walter)
- Darmawati Majid, Indonesia (translated from the original Bahasa Indonesia into English by the author and Nabiha Shahab)
- Yuvan Aves, India
- Margarito Cuéllar, Mexico (translated from the original Spanish into English by Alexandra Walter)
- Marjorie Evasco, Philippines
- Luisa Igloria, USA and Philippines
Launched at the Tate Modern in London, a public arts museum that has been a decommissioned coal firing station for several decades, Holzer’s light projections bathed the building’s iconic chimney to address the climate crisis. The artwork travels to Scotland to light Edinburgh Castle, the SEC Armadillo in the official Blue Zone of COP26 in Glasgow on 8 November, followed by the Met Tower in Glasgow from 9 to 11 November, succeeded by a series of pop-up locations in Edinburgh from 12 to 14 November. It is co-curated and produced by Artwise Curators and Shore Art Advisory, in collaboration with Art for Your World, a movement by WWF to engage the art world in the fight against climate change.
Amplifying the call and demands of climate vulnerable nations at COP26
The CVF is composed of 55 countries. Agam Agenda is a pioneering vulnerable country-led cultural initiative of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities. The Agam Agenda works with poets, visual artists, writers and advocates to elevate the role of the humanities in advancing effective science-driven global climate action. ICSC is a Manila-based international think tank advancing fair climate policy and resilient, low carbon development globally.
Together with CVF Culture Ambassador, Marshall Islands climate envoy, and poet Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, they mobilize arts and culture initiatives of the CVF including Ñaat? When Is Now: Seeding Climate Action through the Arts: a global call for poetry and art to demand urgent action. During the CVF Leader’s Dialogue with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Jetñil-Kijiner (also a contributor to Harvest Moon: Poems and Stories from the Edge of the Climate Crisis) encouraged more poets and artists of CVF countries to connect and co-create the Now we need. She emphasized the role of the youth in cultivating creativity and calling for change.
Writings featured in the UK are from the Agam Agenda’s climate literature anthology, Harvest Moon: Poems and Stories from the Edge of the Climate Crisis, which will be published in December 2021. The book is written in nine languages using 30 images and 30 narratives in verse and prose from 24 countries. Languages include Bahasa Indonesia, Binisaya, English, French, Kankanaey, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish, and Zapotec.
COP26 takes place in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021 where world leaders, government representatives, business and citizens will attempt to forge agreement over twelve days to help to stay within the 1.5°C average global temperature rise prescribed by the Paris Agreement in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.
“THE PARCHED WORLD BURNED AND BODIES FILLED
THE EARTH
AS WATERS GREW HEAVY CORAL REEFS
PUT ON WHITE FUNERAL CLOTHES”
Luisa Igloria, poet and contributor to Harvest Moon: Poems and Stories from the Edge of the Climate Crisis
“WE WHO ARE MOSTLY POORER COUNTRIES HAVE DONE OUR BIT TO HELP SIMPLY BY REMAINING POOR
BUT THIS CANNOT GO ON”
Mohamed Nasheed, speaker of the Maldives parliament, the former Maldives president, and ambassador for ambition of the CVF
Launching at the Tate Modern in London, a public arts museum that has been a decommissioned coal firing station for several decades, Holzer’s light projections will bathe the building’s iconic chimney to address the climate crisis. The artwork will then travel to Scotland to light Edinburgh Castle, while a version of the artwork will be projected on the SEC Armadillo in the official Blue Zone of COP26 in Glasgow on 8 November, followed by the Met Tower in Glasgow from 9 to 11 November, succeeded by a series of pop-up locations in Edinburgh from 12 to 14 November. It is co-curated and produced by Artwise Curators and Shore Art Advisory, in collaboration with Art For Your World, a movement by WWF to engage the art world in the fight against climate change.
Together with ICSC, poetry and art from the Agam Agenda continue to be on exhibit for COP26 and beyond, through the ongoing call for climate stories, poems, and artworks to demand urgent action, When Is Now.
