Climate Congress

As the closing programme of Lahore Biennale LB03, the Climate Congress 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 to contribute towards 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 to play in reshaping societies. The Congress makes space for transregional discussions on how climatebased 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 components for the building of sustainable societies.  

A transnational forum sensitive to local and indigenous perspectives, the Congress aims to model the decentred, international, and interdisciplinary cooperation and collaboration 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. 

2nd–8th November, 2024

November 2, 2024

The Climate of Silk Road Studies

Tamara Chin, Brown University

Lahore Museum auditorium

6:00 pm

November 2, 2024

Eco-motion: A Conversation

Haegue Yang and John Tain

Lahore Museum Auditorium

7:00 pm

November 3, 2024

Groundwater Earth: The World before and after the Tube well

Anthony Acciavatti, Yale University

Hall 3, Alhamra Art Council

6:00 pm

 

November 3, 2024

An Evening with Echoes of Karoonjhar

Saif Samejo (Lahooti) and Invisible Flock

Hall 3, Alhamra Art Council

7:00 pm

November 4, 2024

Asia Forum Arts and Environment Roundtable

Communities: Elyas Alavi, Feroza Hakeem, Kiran Khan, Tariq Alexander Qaiser

Alhamra Hall 2 Lobby

4:00 pm

 

November 4, 2024

Muslim Environmentalisms: Theory and Practice

Anna Gade, University of Wisconsin

Hall 3, Alhamra Art Council

6:00 pm

November 4, 2024

Desert Whispers

Elyas Alavi

Hall 3, Alhamra Art Council

7:00 pm

November 5, 2024

Asia Forum Arts and Environment Roundtable

Organizations: Diana Campbell, Filipa César (Mediateca Onshore), Minaa Haroon, Nida Rehman and Usman Saeed

Lahore Museum Auditorium

4:00 pm

November 5, 2024

The Intractable Garden: Improvement and Unruliness in Lahore’s Landscapes

Nida Rehman, Carnegie Mellon University

Lahore Museum Auditorium

6:00 pm

November 5, 2024

Dohrana: screening and conversation

Vikram Divecha and Muhammad Shabbir Ahmad Din

Lahore Museum Auditorium

7:00 pm

November 6, 2024

Asia Forum Arts and Environment Roundtable

Land: Farida Batool, Köken Ergun, Abraham Oghobase, Elisa Silva, Dicky Takndare and Wulan Dirgantoro

SS Auditorium, LUMS

4:00 pm

 

November 6, 2024

Urban Ecologies: Infrastructures and Lived Realities

Amen Jaffer, LUMS; Ameem Lutfi, LUMS; Nosheen Zaidi, PU; Aneeqa Wattoo, LUMS; Maryam Ibrahim, LUMS (Moderator)

SS Auditorium, LUMS

6:15 ...

November 6, 2024

The Bed She Made

Wong Kit Yi

SS Auditorium, LUMS

7:45 pm

November 7, 2024

Asia Forum Arts and Environment Roundtable

Publications: Aleph, Art Margins, Hybrid, Southeast of Now

Lahore Museum Auditorium

4:00 pm

November 7, 2024

Avian Entanglements in the Age of the Sixth Mass Extinction

Sugata Ray, UC Berkeley

Lahore Museum Auditorium

6:00 pm

November 7, 2024

Human and Animal Ecologies Across the Thar Borderlands

Natasha Raheja, Cornell University

Lahore Museum Auditorium

7:00 pm

November 8, 2024

Climate Narratives: Storytelling, Advocacy and Environmental Justice

Saba Pirzadeh, LUMS; Ahmad Rafay Alam, lawyer; Fazilda Nabeel, LUMS; Sana Khosa, LUMS (Moderator)

NIB Auditorium, LUMS

5:30 pm

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).

Image: Abraham Oghobase, Anatomy of Landscape – Jos, 2018