Energy, Mining and Just Futures

We are delighted to commence our Summer Art Nights with a screening of Slow Violence (2019) followed by a conversation with Studio Lemercier and Dr Ewan Gibbs of the University of Glasgow, chaired by SABG’s art curator Anne Daffertshofer.

Slow Violence was born from the artist’s shock when faced with the environmental devastation caused by the Hambach surface mine, the largest European brown coal mine. After years of campaigning, in 2018, the impending deforestation of one of Germany’s only remaining ancient forests sparked a new wave of fierce opposition from more than 50,000 protesters, including the artist.

By merging documentary material, including of activists on site, with more contemplative sections, Slow Violence interrogates visual modes of depiction that allude to the Technological Sublime, while also emphasising individual actors and agency. The film draws inspiration from the concept of “slow violence,” a term coined in 2011 by the scholar Rob Nixon to describe ‘a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space’. Studio Lemercier presents a perspective which unveils the ghosts of the multiscalar consequences in the future haunting the already obvious and immediate destruction visible today, as represented by the coal mine.

Studio Lemercier will be in conversation with Dr Ewan Gibbs, a historian of energy, industry, work and protest based at the University of Glasgow. His research makes use of both oral history and archival records, and focuses in particular on heritage and memorisation, as well as the use of history in emotive and politically charged contexts such as the “Just Transition” and decarbonisation. Gibbs’ publications include, amongst others, Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialisation in Postwar Scotland, published in 2021.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

St Andrews Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews, United Kingdom