Carbon 14: Climate is Culture

Four months of cultural engagement visioning the challenge and the possible future, a unique and powerful narrative engagement with what is one of the most pressing issues of our time, climate change.

Carbon 14: Climate is Culture is the culmination of two years of work by the Toronto based Cape Farewell Foundation and a team of artists, performers, and cultural producers. Culminating in a major exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum’s (ROM) Centre for Contemporary Culture, it also featured a performing arts festival with The Theatre Centre (Toronto), and a rich series of public programs and events.

Carbon 14: Climate is Culture Exhibition

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
19 October 2013 – 2 February 2014

Collaborating with scientists and cultural informers in confronting the facts of global climate change, the artists participating in the Carbon 14: Climate is Culture exhibition respond to various aspects of the climate challenge in poignant, nuanced, subversive, often humorous, and always passionately human ways. Subjects include explorations of a changing Arctic, the health of oceans, biodiversity and extinction, sustainability and new, clean technologies; and central questions of politics, economics, and ethics. The exhibition was curated by David Buckland and Claire L. Sykes, and produced by Cape Farewell Foundation in partnership with ROM Contemporary Culture.

Featuring works by:

Carbon 14: Climate is Culture Festival

October 2013 – February 2014

In addition to the Carbon 14: Climate is Culture exhibition, we have developed with our various partners, a rich series of public programs, satellite projects and events that are set to unfold throughout our four-month exhibition run.

Highlights include:

  • A performance series produced in partnership with Toronto’s The Theatre Centre, featuring the world premiere of Sea Sick – performed by Alanna Mitchell and adapted from her award-winning book; the Canadian premier of Cynthia Hopkins‘ multi-media musical performance piece This Clement World; and special musical performances. The series runs January 26 – February 9, 2014 at The Theatre Centre, Toronto.
  • The Trial of David Suzuki – a powerful live theatre and public engagement project conceived and produced by Laurie Brown, in partnership with Donnelly Law. The Trial of David Suzuki will be held on November 6, 2013 at the Royal Ontario Museum.
  • Public screen-based art projects in partnership with Pattison Onestop, as part of their Art in Transit program, set to unfold on the Toronto Transit System (TTC) subway platform screens, on the Pattison Onestop network of shopping centre screens nation-wide, and on various digital billboards in the city. The first instalment of art work in November 2012, featured Ship of Fools: Artist and Climate Change, with work by James Balog, Heather O’Neill, and Shad.
  • Public lectures, talks and discussions, including the Carbon 14 Dialogues on topics ranging from the changing Arctic landscape, to the theme “climate is culture” developed in partnership with ROM and the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program.
  • Satellite exhibition and related programming focused on water at THEMUSEUM in Kitchener, Ontario, featuring work by Eamon Mac Mahon in conjunction with Surface Tension: The Future of Water. This exhibition runs September 20, 2013 through January 5, 2014.

Carbon 14 – Festival and Exhibition Guide 13 Mb
Carbon 14 – Press Release 572 Kb

See Also

gallery external view

Carbon 13

Newly commissioned work by eight international artists at Ballroom Marfa, Texas

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