Saturday 18 October, 12pm - 10pm
Sunday 19 October, 12pm - 8pm
Premiere of Seeds of Time: Sunday 19 October, 10am, Gate Picturehouse (click here for information)
Scroll down for full schedule
Tickets £20/£15 conc. (two day) or £15/£10 conc. (one day), available on Ticketweb here and from the Serpentine Galleries, +44(0)207 402 6075.
On the weekend of 18 and 19 October – during the Frieze Art Fair – Serpentine Galleries presents the Extinction Marathon, the ninth in the Galleries' yearly Marathon series. Artists, writers, scientists, film-makers, choreographers, theorists and musicians explore the complex and timely topic of extinction through talks, conversations, performances and screenings.
Felt across the humanities and the sciences alike, the spectre of extinction looms over the ways in which we understand our being in the world today. Environmental degradation, atomic weapons, threats communities and languages, global warming, economic collapses, natural catastrophes, life wiped out by genocide, disease and hunger – the constellation of topics around extinction is ever-expansive and as urgent now as ever before.
Both a reflexive overview and a call to action, the two-day event invites us to respond, together, to a changing world, addressing visions of the future in all their scientific, artistic and literary ramifications. The Extinction Marathon is programmed in collaboration with artist Gustav Metzger, whose work – including his Serpentine Gallery exhibition Decades 1959 – 2009 – addresses extinction and climate change.
Participants include artist and poet Etel Adnan; artist Maria Thereza Alves; artistKorakrit Arunanondchai; artist Ed Atkins; conservationist Jonathan Baillie; architectAlessandro Bava; writer and media activist Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi; designer Irma Boom; Founder of The Whole Earth Catalog and Co-Founder of The Long Now Foundation, Stewart Brand; artist James Bridle; EDGE Foundation founder John Brockman; philosopher Federico Campagna; artist Heman Chong; martist Yve Laris Cohen; odel and actress Lily Cole; neuroscientist Molly Crockett; philosopher Helena Cronin; film-maker Adam Curtis; artist Jesse Darling; artist Benedict Drew; artist and poet Jimmie Durham; mathematician Marcus du Sautoy; palaeontologist Richard Fortey; agriculturalist and biodiversity archivist Cary Fowler; artists Gilbert & George; cultural critic and queer theorist Jack Halberstam; artist Susan Hiller; artist and designer Marguerite Humeau; choreographer Mette Ingvartsen; environmental social scientist Jennifer Jacquet; biologist and author Steve Jones; former Royal Navy Rear Admiral Nick Lambert; speculative designer Lisa Ma; biologist Georgina Mace; physicistChiara Marletto; film-maker Sandy McLeod; artist and activist Gustav Metzger; artistKatja Novitskova; artist Trevor Paglen; artist Cornelia Parker; artist Hetain Patel; anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli; evolutionary ornithologist Richard Prum; design writer Alice Rawsthorn; astrophysicist Martin Rees; Professor, Operational Research,Jonathan Rosenhead; artist Jeremy Shaw; artist Shimabuku; film-maker Eyal Sivan; writer Adam Thirlwell; environmental lawyer James Thornton; musician and sound recordist Chris Watson; artist Cerith Wyn Evans and artist Anna Zett. Contributions by artist and writer Sophia Al-Maria; sociologist Zygmunt Bauman; artist Paul Chan; artistTacita Dean; artist Olafur Eliasson; artist Anna Galkina; writer William Gibson; authorDaniel Kehlmann; poet Joanne Kyger; concrete poet Franz Mon; philosopher Timothy Morton; artist Yoko Ono; artist and poet Heather Phillipson; film-maker Laura Poitras and designers David Rudnick and Raf Rennie.
The Marathon is live-streamed by thespace.org, which partners with Serpentine for the Extinction Marathon in 2014. The Space hosts two new digital commissions by Gustav Metzger and Ed Atkins in addition to the online platform EXTINCT.LY, which gathers data about global resource depletion, conflict zones and climate change scenarios as well as artists’ projects and activists’ calls to action, including works by Kari Altmann;Kev Bewersdorf; David Blandy; Benjamin Bratton; Femke Herregraven; Italian Limes;Emily Jones; Maurizio Lazzarato; Lisa Ma; Alex Mackin Dolan; Timothy Morton; Julian Oliver; Tobias Revell; UBERMORGEN; Michael Wang; Liam Young and Anna Zett.
While The Magazine at the Sackler Gallery will present on-stage participations, talks, screenings and performances, the Serpentine Pavilion 2014, designed by Smiljan Radić, presents an installation by Katja Novitskova as well as a series of workshops by artist and curator Julia Tcharfas.
On Sunday 19 October, the Extinction Marathon begins with the London premiere of the documentary Seeds of Time, directed by Sandy McLeod, which follows crop diversity pioneer Cary Fowler on a journey to saving the one resources we cannot live without: seeds. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Cary Fowler and Sandy McLeod at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery and is free for Marathon ticket-holders. Booking required. Click here for more information.
PROGRAMME
Please note the programme and all timings are subject to change without notice, in advance of the Marathon as well as throughout the event.
SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER
12-3pm, Serpentine Sackler Gallery
Julia Peyton-Jones, Introduction
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Introduction
Gustav Metzger, Introduction
Cornelia Parker, Howl: A Tirade
Jonathan Baillie
Adam Curtis
Gilbert & George in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist
James Bridle, What The Network Teaches
Jonathan Rosenhead, Climate Change and Extinction – A Racing Uncertainty
Marcus Du Sautoy, Death by Mathematics
Alessandro Bava, Dialogue between Nature and an Icelander
3-7pm
Stewart Brand, John Brockman, Richard Prum and Hans Ulrich Obrist, De-Extinction
Molly Crockett, Helena Cronin, Jennifer Jacquet, Steve Jones and Chiara Marletto
Georgina Mace, Are We in the Midst of a Mass Extinction?
Richard Fortey, The Long and the Short Stories of Extinction
Jimmie Durham, The Family
Etel Adnan, reading from The Arab Apocalypse
Joanne Kyger, read by Etel Adnan
Marguerite Humeau, Cleopatra ‘That Goddess’ Recital
7-10pm
Mette Ingvartsen
Yve Laris Cohen, Ligusticum Porteri
Hetain Patel, beMovie 2.0
Susan Hiller, The Last Silent Movie
Adam Thirlwell and Daniel Kehlmann, Conversation with Thomas Bernhard
Jack Halberstam, On Being Late, and Other Short Essays on Becoming Ex-Human
Ed Atkins, Happy Birthday!! we sang
10pm, live stream only on thespace.org and EXTINCT.LY
Anna Zett, This Unwieldy Object
SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER
10am, Gate Picturehouse, 87 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3JZ
London premiere of Seeds of Time, 2014, dir. Sandy McLeod
Free, booking required. To reserve a seat visit seedsoftime.eventbrite.com
12-3pm, Serpentine Sackler Gallery
Julia Peyton-Jones, Introduction
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Introduction
Cary Fowler and Sandy McLeod in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist
James Thornton
Irma Boom in conversation with Alice Rawsthorn, The Book: A Case for Survival
Shimabuku, Can you Clean a Fish?
Katja Novitskova, Neverending Story: Patterns of Survival and Expansion Curves
Korakrit Arunanondchai, 2012-2014 (Trailers)
Trevor Paglen, From Fibre-Optic Beings to Fossils in the Sky
Elizabeth Povinelli, The Three Figures of Extinction
3-6pm
Eyal Sivan
Anna Zett, DINOSAUR.GIF
Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, IWATCH my Future (The techno-media Utopia: pre-scription of our future life)
Federico Campagna, The Root of Extinction
Jesse Darling
Ed Atkins, reading W.S. Merwin, selected by William Gibson
Heman Chong, A Short Story about the End of the World
Martin Rees, Threats to Humanity; or, Will We Survive the Century?
Lisa Ma, Dilemmas
6-8pm
Chris Watson, Ring Angels
Jeremy Shaw, Quickeners(excerpt)
Sophia Al-Maria
Benedict Drew
Lily Cole, performing Yoko Ono’s Bell for Serpentine
Additional contributions by
Maria Thereza Alves, AXOLOTL (poster)
Zygmunt Bauman, conversation excerpts in the Extinction Marathon programme
Paul Chan
Tacita Dean, poster
Olafur Eliasson, poster
Anna Galkina, poster
Franz Mon, Wortbilder
Heather Phillipson, stage design
David Rudnick
Raf Rennie
Julia Tcharfas, workshops in the Serpentine Pavilion
On The Space and EXTINCT.LY
The event is live-streamed by thespace.org, which partners with Serpentine for the Extinction Marathon in 2014 and hosts newly commissioned texts and artworks as well as the platform EXTINCT.LY. The Space and EXTINCT.LY includes works by
Kari Altmann
Ed Atkinsm www.80072745
Kev Bewersdorf
David Blandy, Tutorial: How to Make a Short Video about Extinction
Benjamin Bratton, Notes on Extinction, Emergence and Biochemical Design
Femke Herregraven
Italian Limes
Emily Jones, (I want you to stay) #homni
Maurizio Lazzarato, Extinction
Lisa Ma, How to Be a Bioluddite
Alex Mackin Dolan
Timothy Morton, I’ve Been Kicked in the Biosphere
Julian Oliver
Tobias Revell, The Ongoing Collapse
UBERMORGEN
Michael Wang, Extinct in the Wild
Liam Young
Anna Zett, This Unwieldy Object
Extinction Marathon: Visions of the Future is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects; artist Gustav Metzger; Jochen Volz, Head of Programmes; Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator, Public Programmes; Ben Vickers, Curator of Digital and Claude Adjil, Assistant Curator
Curatorial Assistants: Sarah Shattock, Joseph Constable and Bridie Hindle. Producer: Iain Pate, Technical Director: Kamal Ackarie
EXTINCT.LY produced by Ben Vickers, Kei Kreutler, Lizzie Homersham, Owen Lacey, David Rudnick and Raf Rennie
Programme design and Extinction identity by David Rudnick and Raf Rennie
Live blog by Huw Lemmey. Live stream by Trickbox