Galapagos Art and Science Journey

Summer 2022

25.08 – 06.09 2022, Galapagos Islands, onboard the National Geographic Endeavour II

Organised by My Planet First, and with Quo Artis as artistic curator, with the collaboration of Fundación FIDAL and the Universidad de San Francisco, Quito.

The Galapagos Art&Science Journey was an expedition inspired by the relevance of these islands in the context of the current climate emergency, focusing on their pioneering in policy implementation of sustainable development and environmental protection. The expedition invited a group of artists to tackle issues related to the environmental crisis: ranging from acoustic pollution to waste residue, from imaginary botanical atlases to underwater contamination.

The participating artists, researchers, photographers, writers and curators invited by Quo Artis were Joan Fontcuberta, Robertina Šebjanič, Katya Cazar, Victoria Vesna, Blanca de la Torre, Jorge Carrión, Lonneke Gordijn, Urs Bigler and Santiago Escobar. This group joined relevant political and scientific figures, among which there were four Nobel prize laureates Aaron Ciechanover, Erwin Neher, Richard Roberts and Richard Schrock, as well as Equatorian politican and activist Rosalía Arteaga. Onboard the National Geographic Endeavour II, the Galapagos

Art&Science Journey generated a laboratory of ideas where artists and scientists reflected upon the future of humanity and non-human species through artistic projects and a cycle of debates. As such, it was an initiative that seeked the promotion of international cooperation, and will continue to do so over the next two years, to explore solutions for today’s economic, social and environmental challenges to achieve a sustainable future with a particular focus on local impact and Galagapos’s current crises.

Participants

Blanca de la Torre

Blanca de la Torre curates, lectures and publishes extensively on the intersections of art, cultural studies, ecology and sustainable practices, and has also acted as a consultant to diverse sustainability and cultural organizations and institutions.

Urs Bigler

Urs Bigler is Switzerland-based photographer whose practice explores the bodily and the human and their interactions with nature and architecture.

Katya Cazar

Katya Cazar is a visual artist from Cuenca, with practical and theoretical training in contemporary art. She has exhibited in solo exhibitions in Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and the United States.

Joan Foncuberta

He is a renowned conceptual photographer, as well as a writer, editor, curator and professor, who has played an important role in the consecration of Spanish photography internationally.

Lonneke Gordijn

Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn (1980) and Ralph Nauta (1978) founded DRIFT in 2007.
DRIFT manifests the phenomena and hidden properties of nature with the use of technology in order to learn from the Earth’s underlying mechanisms and to re-establish our connection to it.

Jorge Carrión

Phd in humanities Universidad Pompeu i Fabra (Barcelona) and directs the Master in Literary Creation of the same institution. He has lived in Buenos Aires, Rosario and Chicago. He has published in various newspapers such as El País, La Vanguardia and Letras Libres.

Victoria Vesna

She is a Phd, Artist and Professor at the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts and Director of the Art|Sci Center at the School of the Arts and California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI).

Robertina Šebjanič

She focuses her research on the cultural, (bio) political and ecological realities of aquatic ecosystems, using this as a starting point to investigate and address philosophical questions about the intersection of art, science and technology.