The Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF) announces the Climate Congress. As the closing programme of Lahore Biennale LB03, the Climate Congress (2nd-8th November, 2024) extends the histories and research developed as part of the main exhibition, Of Mountains and Seas, by convening a mix of leading and emerging researchers, artists, curators, and other practitioners. Developed under the direction of Iftikhar Dadi and John Tain, the Climate Congress offers an occasion for South-South conversations around the role of the arts and humanities in contributing to wider efforts to generate awareness and support for imagining sustainable futures.
Complementing Of Mountains and Seas, which addresses the subject of ecologies and sustainable futures from the perspectives of Asia and the Global South, the Congress foregrounds the central role art and culture have in reshaping societies. The Congress creates space for transregional discussions on how climate-based and ecological art, art history, and humanities, by serving as stewards of cultural heritage and practices, can generate alternative ideas and social change, both of which are necessary for building sustainable societies.
Iftikhar Dadi noted, “As an artistic and intellectual platform, the Lahore Biennale aims to further Global South perspectives. From the beginning, the Lahore Biennale has addressed the specificity of Lahore as a historically layered city and as a living site comprising diverse publics. It has also situated the city dynamically in wider regional contexts. Each Biennale consequently encourages the interweaving of local and global perspectives: the first Biennale (LB01) in 2018 placed emphasis on exchanges across South Asia, and the second Biennale (LB02) in 2020 stressed dialogue with West Asia, North Africa, and the African diaspora. LB03 continues this engagement by emphasising cultural transactions with Southeast Asia, East Asia, and beyond.”
A transnational forum sensitive to local and indigenous perspectives, the Congress aims to model the decentred, international, and interdisciplinary cooperation that will be critical to building just and sustainable societies in the face of the climate crisis, a phenomenon that will affect the world regardless of borders or origins. Researchers and artists from Pakistan and over 20 countries, and numerous institutions will participate in the Climate Congress.
While partly closed-door, the Climate Congress will include events every day that are free and open to the public. The public program features talks and discussions by Tamara Chin, Anna Gade, Sugata Ray, and Nida Rehman. Additionally, there will be presentations, performances, and conversations with Köken Ergun, Abuzar Madhu, Wong Kit Yi, and Haegue Yang, among other Biennale artists present. Finally, the Congress also engages other allied arts organizations, including Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (Wanwu Council), AFIELD, and the Echoes of Karoonjhar Artist Residency program (a collaboration between Lahooti Melo and Invisible Flock, supported by the British Council Pakistan).
The Climate Congress is supported by a grant from the Getty Foundation and is hosted in collaboration with faculty from the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
John Tain, Curator of Lahore Biennale (LB03), observed, “The Climate Congress brings together researchers, artists, and arts professionals from across Asia and the Global South to Lahore, highlighting the city’s rich legacy as a hub for cultural and social exchange. Aside from the knowledge sharing that it enables, the gathering demonstrates Pakistan’s capacity to host not just national or regional discussions, but also transnational ones, and achieves the biennale’s goal of fostering connections between local cultural producers and those from other parts of Asia, particularly South and Southeast Asia. These efforts aim to build solidarities that are essential for creating the transnational collaborations needed to reshape the world along ecological ideals.” He further added, “We are grateful to the Getty Foundation for entrusting Lahore with organising this reunion of the cohorts of the Connecting Art Histories programs from Asia of the last decade as part of the Congress.”
