Event
ARC @ RightsCon 2025
Online
Panel: Intersection of Futures, Indigenous Cultures, and Environmental Challenges
Wednesday, February 26 | 11:00am CST | Online
Panel description
The urgent challenges of environmental degradation and climate change demand innovative solutions. Indigenous artists around the world are creatively intertwining ancestral world views and new technologies to envision and prefigure different futures in response to the looming threats of environmental catastrophe and unending warfare. This session will bring together some of the most creative Indigenous artists from different continents to engage in a dialogue about the intersection of futures, Indigenous art, and environmental challenges. We will explore how their unique perspectives and artistic practices can inspire and guide us toward more sustainable and just societies.
Indigenous communities have long been defenders of their land and environments, employing traditional knowledge systems that have ensured the sustainability of their territories for generations. By merging these ancestral practices with modern technological innovations, Indigenous artists are not only preserving their cultural heritage but also offering visionary solutions to the global environmental crisis. This session aims to highlight the critical role of Indigenous art in shaping a more equitable and resilient future.
Participants will gain insights into how Indigenous artists are addressing environmental issues through various forms of expression, including visual arts, music, performance, and digital media. The dialogue will emphasize the importance of Indigenous visions of the future in the global conversation about climate change and environmental justice. By amplifying these voices, we can foster greater understanding and collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, ultimately paving the way for a more sustainable coexistence with our planet.
Moderator
Alessandro Zagato
Alessandro Zagato is the Latin America Regional Representative for the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), where he develops initiatives that promote artistic freedom and human rights across the region. Before joining ARC, he worked as an academic researcher at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is the founder of the Research Group in Arts and Politics (GIAP) and its associated residency center, Casa Giap, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among international artists and researchers in Chiapas, Mexico.
Speakers
Aigerim Kapar
Aigerim Kapar is an interdependent curator, cultural activist, initiator of the Artcom Platform and Art Collider school. She was born in 1987 in Kazakhstan and continues to live and work in Astana and Almaty. In her curatorial practices, Kapar focuses on research of the cultural landscape of Central Asia. Collective memory, nomadic heritage and environmental justice are crosscutting in all her projects. Kapar curates and organizes exhibitions, urban art interventions, discussions, lectures, and workshops. To accomplish such wide-ranging initiatives, she often collaborates closely with art and educational institutions, as well as scientific apparatuses.
Daniel Maposa
Professor Daniel Maposa is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Limpopo in South Africa. He has published several journal articles and two book chapters in internationally accredited journals. He is currently lecturing postgraduate level courses including categorical data analysis and statistical inference. He has supervised to completion several masters and doctoral postgraduate students. He holds a postgraduate diploma in higher education and technology, and a certificate in SARIMA research ethics and integrity. He is a National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researcher and is also a Professional Natural Scientist (Pr. Sci. Nat.).
Seba Calfuqueo
Seba Calfuqueo is an artist of Mapuche origin whose work critically reflects on the social, cultural, and political status of the Mapuche people in contemporary Chilean society. Calfuqueo’s expansive practice mobilizes installations, ceramics, performance, and video to explore their heritage, feminism, and sexual dissidence. Her work often parses out the cultural similarities and differences, as well as stereotypes, that emerge from the intersection of Indigenous and Westernized modes of thought. Calfuqueo is also part of the Mapuche collective Rangiñtulewfü and contributes to the magazine Yene.
Shilo Shiv Suleman
Shilo Shiv Suleman is an award-winning Indian artist whose work lies at the intersection of Magical Realism, Art, Technology and Social Justice. Her work weaves together the sensual and sacred, past and future-through paintings, wearable sculptures, interactive installations and public art interventions. Her collaborations with a neuroscientist on creating art that interacts with your brainwaves and other biofeedback sensors made her recipient of several grants including the honorarium installation- Pulse & Bloom at Burning Man. She has been featured on TED, BBC, Rolling Stone, MSNBC, Tech Crunch, The Guardian, WIRED, and has exhibited her work at the Southbank Centre in London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.