Please join us online on Wed 10 Nov to celebrate the launch of Gathering Moss – an online landscape populated with ideas provoking climate action, made by young artists in Bath and Seoul during a Creative Camp; and ActZero – a provocation led by South Korean artists Bang & Lee.

Co-hosted by Art Center Nabi, Watershed and Bang & Lee, the launch actively coincides with the final days of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Glasgow (UK), and is the result of a programme of work funded by The British Council and The Korea Foundation (KF) as part of the cultural programme for P4G Seoul Summit and COP26.

The Gathering Moss Creative Camp

In early October seven young people from across continents were invited to participate in a 5-day Creative Camp hosted by Art Centre Nabi and Watershed in collaboration with The Studio at Palace Yard Mews and Bristol+Bath Creative R+D. It was an invitation to collectively consider the climate crisis and generate artistic ideas. Through online meet ups, activities in each location and inspiration sessions with artists and activists such as Play: Disrupt, Climate Citizens 3.5, Aidan Moesby, Zoe Rasbash and GEYK (Green Environment Youth Korea), participants explored topics ranging from global inequalities to responsibilities, to playful action and individual well-being. Conversations zoomed out and in resulting in the creation of scratch works that we are delighted to share. Please join us online for this special launch event to learn more about Gathering Moss Creative Camp participants:

• Chanu Lee a digital designer and contemporary media artist, and Sooah Kwak, an artistic researcher and media artist, both based in Seoul. Their joint interest in underwater data centres has led to a new work titled Irrational Love, which playfully questions the possibility of solidarity between multiple species and objects natural and unnatural, human and non-human. They will present a fictional utopian community rooted in irrational love.

Chanu and Sooah say:

“Combating climate change is always controversial and inevitably political. However. within all the debates and politics, there is always love; a love that is so irrational that it points to every human being, animal, and object in this world. Love is radical.”

• Tom Forsey a filmmaker from Bath with an MSci in Earth Sciences from UCL. Tom strives to combine his passion for solving the climate crisis with filmmaking and has created an experimental video work that speaks to this mission.

Tom says:

“The Future? We Choose will encourage viewers to consider the crossroads we're at now with COP26 on the horizon and how humanity has a choice. Based on scientific projections of potential future scenarios, my work will contrast utopia with dystopia in a very human way, to draw attention to the stark reality of this moment.”

• Inez Solomon-Gardner a credited actor based in Bath and London with a keen interest in writing and music. Inez loves working across disciplines and has created an experience combining poetry and interactive video that explores our individual responsibility to save the planet. Titled The last choice, Inez’s work highlights the urgency of the situation and how our small actions can make a huge difference in the fate of humanity.

Inez says:

“The last choice aims to help people understand the climate emergency in a more light hearted way without bombarding them with all of the information at once. I hope it will encourage viewers to think more actively about the choices they make in their everyday lives.”

• Heather Gibson a Bristol and Bath based queer creative who is on a mission to create social change. Constructed with yarn made from IKEA sandwich bags and creatively produced image content, Heather’s piece titled Coronary Synthesis, explores the relationship between plastics and the human body asking, if babies born in 2021 have fifteen times more microplastics within them than adults, what will human organs look like in the future?

Heather says:

“I hope this piece conveys that the dominant narratives around plastic pollution are a distraction. With governments and corporations placing blame on consumer decisions, I hope to inspire others to pull at the threads of misinformation surrounding climate change.”

• And finally media artists Water Dweller (Syemin Park & Seunghee Choi) - Syemin Park whose work focuses on the mistakes and remnants of technology, and Seunghee Choi who makes artificial life through computational generative art, are interested in data and movement of microplastics through environments and bodies. Their work imagines a future where microplastics that stow the data of each entity they have passed through, are left behind by every creature on the planet. They ask, what will microplastics tell about you when your body disappears?

Syemin and Seunghee say:

“We reinterpret plastics as a medium that crosses through organisms, micro-organisms and inorganic substances; entangling these elements into one macro-organism. Through this view, we wish audiences to acknowledge that their interactions with their everyday surroundings ultimately defines their identity.”

ActZero

As part of the launch we are also thrilled to officially launch ActZero – a concept formed by South Korean artists Bang & Lee that challenges citizens worldwide, to act together with them to achieve net-zero in their daily lives. Alongside Gathering Moss Creative Camp, Bang & Lee have themselves undertaken a series of creative net-zero acts on Jeju Island in South Korea, focussed on sustainable materials, renewable energy, local biodiversity, and ultimately a return to nature. This site-specific project is titled ActZero Noji. Noji refers to an open space with untouched nature in Jeju Island, a location that has already seen a rise in water temperature and ecological changes caused by climate change.

As part of this event we are excited to share ActZero Noji and extend an open invitation to get involved and ActZero too.

Artist Jayoung Bang from Bang & Lee says:

“The Gathering Moss online platform grew from the recognition that we stand on a rocking bridge between older and future generations and we need to act now. The effects of climate change are devastating many communities around the world including those on Jeju Island, yet we cannot slow the rocking alone. ActZero extends out from Gathering Moss and our acts with Jeju are just the beginning. A million acts will become a collective action and we urge others to take part. We are excited to launch this provocation and honoured to be a part of this work, together with young artists, Art Center Nabi and Watershed.”

Victoria Tillotson, Talent Development Lead at Watershed says:

"We are extremely excited to launch Gathering Moss and ActZero. Supporting artists to connect, create and share ideas across continents, is a hugely important part of our work at Watershed. As an organisation we are also actively committed to climate action. So it is great to bring these important elements of our work together in this project, with Art Centre Nabi, Bang & Lee and Bristol+Bath Creative R+D. We cannot wait to throw open the digital doors to Gathering Moss, and share this important work with audiences across the globe.”

When, where and how to join the event online

The launch, co-hosted by Art Center Nabi, Watershed and artists Bang & Lee took place online at 10am (GMT) / 7pm (KST) on Wed 10 Nov 2021. You can re-watch the event and view the artists work here here: www.gatheringmoss.art

You can re-watch the event here and see the artists work.

The event is delivered in English and Korean.

Gathering Moss is funded by The British Council and The Korea Foundation (KF), who in early 2021 jointly invited applications for a creative commission that integrated art, science and digital technology and responded to climate change. This commission is a part of the cultural programme for P4G Seoul Summit held in Seoul in May 2021 and the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) taking place in Glasgow in November 2021.

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