Beyond 2º

Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares, Carolina Caycedo, Olga Kisseleva, Nicholas Mangan, Otobong Nkanga, Robert Zhao Renhui, Andrea Polli, Amie Siegel, and Melanie Smith

Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara presents Beyond 2°, a group exhibition that addresses the topic of natural resource exploitation from a range of global perspectives. In considering the implications of a rapidly changing natural environment, the artists’ works investigate various systems perpetuating climate change and those systems’ impact on local ecologies. The exhibition’s title Beyond 2° references the rise in two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures that is widely recognized as a threshold above which global warming risks become irreversible. While the artists’ works delve into various factors affecting our planet’s rising temperature, they also offer new insights into thinking through this issue beyond statistics, calling attention to historical, philosophical, and political forces influencing our concept of nature and how we relate to it.

The artists, each with a strong research-based practice, focus on a range of anthropogenic activities—notably, large-scale infrastructural projects that include open-pit mining, rubber tree farming, and hydroelectric dams. From revealing incompatibilities of industrial operations with the ecosystems they enter into, to critiquing our impetus to extract, collect, manipulate, and display various unearthed materials, their multidisciplinary works question the logic of human interventions that are radically altering our planet.

Beyond 2° is curated by Brooke Kellaway.

This exhibition is accompanied by a publication, as well as an extensive list of public programs, which include:

April 7
6pm: Talk by Sigrid Wright, Community Environmental Council Executive Director: “One Earth. One Climate.”

April 16–17: The Bureau of Linguistical Reality
April 16, 11am–4pm: Earth Day at Alameda Park, 1400 Santa Barbara Street
April 16, 7–8pm: Earth Night at The Goodland Hotel, 5650 Calle Real
April 17, 1–3pm: Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara

May 5
6pm: Talk by David Pellow, Dehlsen Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies and Co-Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara: “What is Ecological Justice?”

May 18
6pm: Solid Maneuvers performance by artist Otobong Nkanga*

June 2
6pm: Artist talk by Andrea Polli: “Are You Becoming Radicalized? Public Art and Activism between Climate, Culture, and Information Space”

June 3
7pm: Soundwalk by Andrea Polli, MCASB Satellite at Hotel Indigo, 121 State Street

July 7
6pm: Artist talk by Amie Siegel

All events located at MCASB (653 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA) unless otherwise specified. Please visit www.mcasantabarbara.org for further details.

Public programming related to Beyond 2º includes our ongoing themed series of Curated Cocktails, Third Thursday Studios, and Sunday Storytimes as well as a six week Visiting Artist Series Workshop for Teens: “Upcycling & Repurposing,” starting Monday, April 11, 4–7pm.

Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) exhibition and education programs are generously supported by Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center; Susan E. Bower Engagement Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts; Nordstrom; Towbes Foundation; Ann Jackson Family Foundation; Community Events & Festivals Grant Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission; Mosher Foundation in honor of Barry Berkus, recommended by Dr. Bruce McFadden; Andrea Lang Fund, and contributions from our Board of Trustees and many generous individuals. MCASB Curator’s Council is gratefully acknowledged for their support. Additional significant support is provided by The James Irvine Foundation; Getty Foundation; Hutton Parker Foundation; Williams-Corbett Foundation, and Santa Barbara Foundation.

Beyond 2º program partners: Casa Serena, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary/N.O.A.A., Community Environmental Council, Environmental Defense Center, Explore Ecology, Incredible Children’s Art Network (iCAN), and KCRW.

Special thanks to: MCASB Ambassador Committee, MCASB Teen Arts Council, The Goodland Hotel, KEYT, KSBY, Santa Barbara Independent, and Telegraph Brewing Company.

*Exhibition-related performances mark MCASB’s ongoing commitment to performance via our On Edge Performance Art Series and is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.