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EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts: International Exhibition of Indigenous Art and Performance (25.10.2013 - 10.11.2013)

Conceived and led by Helen Gilbert, this 16-day exhibition installed over 5 floors at Bargehouse, investigated multi-layered connections between performance and sustainability in contemporary indigenous arts from the Americas, Australia, the Pacific and South Africa. Based on interdisciplinary research conducted in dialogue with over 40 performance makers, EcoCentrix treated sustainability not only as the conservation of natural environments and resources but also as a way of making art that vitalizes indigenous cultures and connects them to a global citizenry. To convey these links, the exhibition brought the tangible ‘remains’ of specific events (photos, moving images, sounds, texts, textures, crafted objects) into dialogue with the intangible processes of participating in performance. Nicolas Bourriaud’s work on ‘relational aesthetics’ and ‘art as a state of encounter’, provided a conceptual lead for realizing this dialogic process. One kind of relational aesthetics was enacted through the exhibition’s staging in London (some exhibits responded to the city’s imperial history) and specifically at Bargehouse. Treating the venue’s raw, textured surfaces (suggesting decay and durability) as powerful and mutable characters affected by light, sound and human presence, we combined high-tech and low-tech design elements to accommodate the performativity of the space and the displays. Experiments with modes of spectatorship (via a panorama, diorama and live ‘artifact’ installation) enacted a second kind of relational aesthetics, attempting to expose and modify exhibitionary norms. Interactive displays, workshops and live performances were incorporated into the exhibition to reach beyond archival functions such as categorization and restoration, and towards indigenous notions of sustainability as a collective social practice that also encompasses social memory. In this mode, what remains of performance can be activated anew rather than confirming its disappearance. Gilbert completed 75% of the research, oversaw her team’s contribution, conducted negotiations with indigenous artists and advisors and wrote 75% of the information panels.