Cultures in Conversation

Commissioned by Expo 2020, Cultures in Conversation was a ten week programme of events and interventions that challenge the typical talks format. It followed from the belief that the planet and its people are at a crucial inflection point on many fronts; and never has the need for breakthrough thinking, reimagined approaches, and genuinely change-driven voices been so acute.

 

Multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural, the programme unites people who are normally unlikely to even be in the same room—poets, diplomats, theorists, artists, environmental agents of change, academics. Part of Expo’s wider series entitled Programme for People and Planet (PPP), Cultures in Conversation is less about global leaders owning top-down conversation, and more an opportunity for diverse people from around the world to unite, take ownership of a programme, and re-think global issues that have become excruciatingly urgent.

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Programming Thematics

Climate

We live at the epicentre of an ecological catastrophe with unimaginable consequences. Our dialogue is aimed at underlining the existence of this nascent and marginalised organic consciousness, its moral vitality, and its political-economic essence.

Urban Development

The invisible ties that bind urban communities together become visible in the construction and use of shared public spaces.

Knowledge & Learning

Hosted by Engage 101, theatrical and didactic, this performance will make “the classroom” the protagonist, and invites the audience to choose, react to, and explore its subjects.

Travel & Connection

This programme considers the cultural imagination of the celestial and how important systems of knowledge have been passed down through literature, memory, and oral narratives, continuing to hold meaning as we imagine space futures.

Food

The intrinsic link between food and culture, this programme invites local, regional, and international artists, chefs, researchers, scientists, and curators to share their stories.

Water

Cultural connections and knowledge were forged through maritime trade over centuries, shaping our cultural identities and belief systems. In this event we explore what can be learnt from the respect that our ancestors had for the elixir of life and how the past connects with the
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Cultures in Conversation is emblematic of Alserkal Advisory’s approach to cultural production: it is rigorous, galvanises practitioners from across disciplines and cultures, and consistently challenges and diversifies conventional formats in the name of context- and audience-specificity. For Cultures in Conversation, immersive experiences, artist interventions, informal conversations, and performances are programming pillars.

 

Participants include Charles Landry, Lumumba Di-Aping, Nujoom Al-Ghanem, Mary Ellen Carroll, 3 137, Stephen Hobbs, and the Engage 101 collective, among others.