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An exhibition titled ‘At the Tipping Point: Art and Ecology from the Rooftop of the World’ has begun at Taragaon Next in Kathmandu on the occasion of World Environment Day.
The exhibition, inaugurated on Thursday, was opened to the public from Friday.
Presented as a convergence of art and environmental awareness, the exhibition has been organized by Sagarmatha Next. It is held in collaboration with the Saraf Foundation and curated by renowned Indian art historian Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala.
According to her, the exhibition has been organized keeping in view the global ecological urgency. The exhibition portrays the impact on nature through various mediums.
The exhibition will run for three months, during which creators will express their art through various mediums.
At the exhibition, artist Salil Subedi and his team gave a special live performance titled ‘Earth Emergence’. In this presentation, performed with red earth smeared on the body and in contact with the ground, the relationship between humans and soil is highlighted. His presentation is based on postcolonial thinker Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s concept of ‘planetarity’.
Focusing on the reality of the Himalayan region, which is experiencing temperature rise nearly double the global average, the exhibition aims to redefine the human-Earth relationship through contemporary art by encompassing climate change, cultural awareness, indigenous knowledge, and scientific perspectives.
Twelve international and Nepali artists will present diverse perspectives on environmental crisis through their distinctive creations in this exhibition.
A poetic video by Himali Singh Soin, shot in the icy region of Svalbard, questions colonialism, climate change, and failed expeditions, while Ursula Biemann’s video essay ‘Forest Mind’, created in collaboration with Colombia’s Inga community, portrays the forest as a conscious source of knowledge.
Likewise, Uttsa Hazarika’s ‘Yantra–Bloom’, a living sculpture, tries to give a new life to Delhi’s Samrat Yantra sundial through jasmine flowers.
Similarly, Maksud Ali Mondal’s ‘Fungal Habitat’ presents a self-evolving sculpture made from mushrooms, soil, and wood, while Nepali artist Samyukta Bhandari’s ‘Echoes of Survival’ attempts to reflect the vanishing sound of sparrows amidst urbanization through sound and technology.
In the same way, Amit Machamasi is presenting the vanishing cultivable land of Bhaktapur through a series of three photographic works.
Another participant, Monika Ursina Jäger, in ‘Liquid Time’, critically presents the cycle from mountain stone to sand to concrete, while Joana Moll’s ‘4004’ digitally represents the decline in insect populations caused by microchip manufacturing.
Chris Jordan presents photographs and film of albatross chicks that died due to marine plastic pollution.
Saurganga Darshandhari’s sculpture related to the Newar community’s Yomari festival connects food culture with ecological balance, while Robertina Šebjanič presents the invisible side of environmental degradation through sound installation titled The Atlantic Tales and Co Sonic.
Likewise, creations by Monika Ursina Jäger, Joana Moll, and Saurganga Darshandhari have been included as special features.
The exhibition brings together the world—from the Arctic to the Andes, from Nepal’s farmlands to the digital cloud—within a single artistic frame.
