New exhibition Moulding Nature curated by Nico Carpentier

As one of the outcomes of our Mistra research project, Nico Carpentier (Department of Media Studies) is curating (together with Daniel Urey and Emilia Rosenqvist) the exhibition Moulding Nature – Discursive Struggles Over the Environment at Fargfabriken arts center in Stockholm. The exhibition runs from 26 August to 26 November. 

Moulding Nature raises questions about how we perceive our environment. In video works, collages, photos and installations, artists and other participants explore how different discourses affect the way we give meaning to nature and the role of mankind in it. Discourses that often are in conflict with each other and compete for space, sometimes even fight each other.

Discourse can be described as “a filter” that affects how the conversation is conducted and how different phenomena are perceived within an area. From a social sciences perspective our relationship to reality is maintained or controlled through various discourses. For example, if you believe in God and part of a religious discourse, you perceive the world in a different way than someone who is an atheist and part of an atheistic discourse.

The exhibition is part of a project on environmental communication where researchers have identified voices, positions and ideologies that can be linked to the discussion about nature and the environment. These are illustrated through an ideological map developed by Nico Carpentier (with a design by Irene Straccuzzi), which, together with selected works of art, gives a multifaceted and deepened picture of the struggle about how the world around us can be interpreted.

A large part of the visual material in the exhibition has been produced through co-creative activities, where people from different geographical and social contexts participated. The result is a number of installations that highlight the many layers of interpretations, voices and conflicts of interest that characterize landscapes, forestry, gardens and urban environments.