From its position as a deeply rooted but globally reaching cultural actor, Alserkal Advisory conceptualised the Global Co-commission as an initiative that foregrounds subaltern community knowledge in public art that addresses shared global challenges.
In partnership with the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN), the Global Co-commission spans three cultural districts across three continents. They are: Alserkal Avenue, Dubai (UAE), Victoria Yards, Johannesburg (South Africa), and Kingston Creative, Kingston (Jamaica).
In developing an initiative focused on contextualising the global climate crisis and driving collective action, the Global Co-commission is supported by UAP — Urban Art Project, whose proprietary tools will help measure the impact of public art not only by providing a framework to audit the project’s CO2 emissions, but also by tracking and reporting on the societal impact and afterlife of the three commissions in each of the participating districts.
A Feral Commons is the central theme of the Global Co-commission, uniting the three public art commissions.
Developed by curator Tairone Bastien, A Feral Commons, draws from Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s notion of the ‘feral’ —natural phenomena resisting human control— inviting artists of the Global Co-commission to produce site-specific artworks that arise from local ecologies.
Examining the oft-unrecognised non-human entanglements with humans and their built infrastructures, the artworks can materially contribute to a higher awareness of our environments, unexpected inter-species collaborations, and sustainable public spaces for the future.
“Despite efforts to command nature, cities are teaming with rebellious creatures that refuse to be contained or controlled. Each co-commission is based on research and consideration of natural phenomena that resist human control: the undomesticated, the defiant and disobedient, inviting the public to learn with these feral ecologies about resilience, adaptability and strategies for survival in the face of the climate emergency.”
Organisational Partners
The Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN)
The Global Cultural Districts Network is committed to improving the quality of urban life through the contribution of culture. The collaboration between GCDN and Alserkal is forged by social connections across geographies and areas of expertise.
Urban Arts Projects (UAP)
The team at Urban Art Projects (UAP) supports the Global Co-commission by providing critical financial, technical, and design assistance through proprietary tools to measure the impact of public art and audit the project’s CO2 emissions.
Integrated research
Art Ingredients List
Public Art 360
The Commissions
Showcasing the artist-district pairings, the site-specificity embedded in each process, and the upcoming resulting commission
Alserkal Avenue
Constructed in the industrial area of Al Quoz in 2008, Alserkal Avenue is a place where business and culture cross-pollinate. It is the site of one of three Global co-commissions.
Muhannad Shono
Challenging medium and scale, Shono's multidisciplinary practice is catalyzed and structured by story. His work harnesses the power of narrative by creating and contesting personal, collective and historical truths.
AC Ecologies
For A Feral Commons, Muhannad is studying unexpected ecologies that are thriving unnoticed in the urban environment of Al Quoz, particularly looking at what emerges from under AC unites, calling it 'AC ecologies'.
A Forgotten Place
Muhannad Shono designed and built the structural installation to mimic AC water drip to support the growth of a garden of indigenous plants.
The industrial backdrop of the industrial area in Al Quoz nurtures a garden interlock.
Victoria Yards
Victoria Yards is a one-of-a-kind urban complex that prioritises both social development and business growth. Originally built as a steam laundry in 1913, Victoria Yards has now become a harbour for teachers, learners, artists, and creative enterprises such as their urban agriculture project.
Io Makandal
Interdisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg, working primarily with drawing, photography, sculpture and installation, her practice is concerned with process, transformation, entropy, and ecologies in relation to the human environment.
The Jukskei River
Running through Victoria Yards is the severly overlooked Jukskei river that runs through the precinct. Makandal's installation will be positioned at the point where the river meets daylight and where the first impact of human mismanagement, sewerage and pollution come into effect.
Kingston Creative
A non-profit organisation that, since 2017, has been building a healthy creative neighbourhood in the heart of downtown Kingston. As an NGO, they see it as their mission to put in place an ecosystem so that the creators of the culture can benefit from their natural talent, and that Jamaica can, in turn, develop sustainably, benefiting from their natural talent, and lean into its creative economy.
Camille Chedda
Explore ideas around race and post-colonial identity through drawing, painting, collage and installation. She works with everyday materials such as plastic bags, cement and concrete blocks as surfaces to be manipulated.
Rice and Peas Bush
The Lower South Camp Park in Kingston, a public area which for various socio-political reasons has become neglected and overgrown with wild plants, especially the ubiquitous Mexican Creeper more popularly known in Jamaica as the Rice and Peas Bush, an edible and medicinal plant and a magnet for bees and pollinating insects.
