The VAG is billing the exhibit as ‘the first major exhibition in Canada to examine the intersection of contemporary art and future climates on a global scale’
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Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change
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When: May 14-Jan. 10, 2027
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby St., Vancouver
Info:vanartgallery.bc.ca
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The exhibit that would eventually become Future Geographies had been on Eva Respini’s mind for a long time, even before she started working at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
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“I was seeing a lot of art that was making me think about our shared future on this planet,” said Respini, who is now the VAG’s interim co-CEO and curator-at-large. In 2023, she moved here from Boston, where she curated at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, to take on the role of deputy director and director of curatorial programs.
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“Some of it was poetic, some of it was urgent, some of it was more sci-fi. When I moved to Vancouver and started working at the gallery, I thought this was the right place to do an exhibition like this. Vancouver is where Greenpeace was founded. It’s known for its natural beauty, yet it’s also a province shaped by resource extraction.”
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The VAG is billing Future Geographies as “the first major exhibition in Canada to examine the intersection of contemporary art and future climates on a global scale.” The show includes more than 35 works, from immersive video installations to living sculptures, and organized into four thematic sections: Living Knowledge; Consumed Earth, which examines artistic responses to histories of extraction and the threat of extinction; Speculative Worlds, with science-fiction-tinged work imagining futures; and Material Memory. The latter features work fashioned from recycled and found materials “and those that focus on ideas of healing and recuperation.”
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Specific pieces include SANCTUARY: The Ancient Forest Experience. Presented within a geodesic dome on the gallery’s fourth floor, the installation immerses visitors into two ancient forest ecosystems: the Inland Temperate Rainforest in the Kootenay region and Stal’Kaya (Dakota Bear Ancient Forest) on the Sunshine Coast. The 2021 work is a collaboration between ethnobotanist Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss and filmmakers Damien Gillis and Olivier Leroux.
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“I think that will be quite an impactful piece because, locally, it’s very relevant. The way that they have invited the visitor in, it’s as if you’re in that forest with sounds like waterfalls and birds. They’re really creating an environment.”
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Vertigo Sea (2015), by Ghanaian artist John Akomfrah, will have its Vancouver premiere with the show. The internationally acclaimed work is a three-channel video installation that montages archival and new footage into a meditation about the fishing industry.
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“Together, these works connect the hyper-local to the global,” Respini said.
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With the world’s attention seemingly focused away from climate change, the show’s timing feels like both a challenge and an opportunity.
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“There are other urgent issues — from war to questions of cultural sovereignty here in Canada. But one goal of the show is to create a space to imagine our shared future in a way that isn’t overly didactic.
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“Artists aren’t journalists or scientists, but they ask questions. They allow us to think differently, to approach a topic in a way that leaves room for hope and imagination. Even if climate change isn’t dominating headlines, it’s still a major concern — especially for younger people. Art can be a platform to think about it in a more open-ended way.”
