by Sumugan Sivanesan // Jan. 21, 2025
This article is part of our feature topic Cycles.
Artist, researcher and curator Sybille Neumeyer recently opened the group show ‘Teleconnections’ at D21 Kunstraum Leipzig, as part of her long-term artistic research into the narratives and aesthetics of climate crises. The term “teleconnections,” often used in climate science to describe links between distant climate zones, is reimagined here to explore the interplay between climates, media and politics. It also nods to “telecommunication”—emphasizing how media shapes socio-political and bio-cultural atmospheres. The multimedia contributions by 14 international artists examine how media-driven climate narratives (re)produce power dynamics. They critically address topics such as greenwashing, CO2 cycles, colonial data systems, activism and energy infrastructures, often taking eco-feminist, speculative, poetic or humorous perspectives. We spoke with Neumeyer about the pressing concepts behind some of the works in ‘Teleconnections’ and about how art can become a transformative agent in these cycles.
Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne: ‘Media Cycle,’ 2022, digital print // © Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne, courtesy the artist
Sumugan Sivanesan: I was impressed both by the depth of research and the breadth of practices brought together for ‘Teleconnections,’ and how you put them into conversation. On the wall of the main gallery there is an infographic illustrating interactions between media and carbon cycles prompting viewers to consider the ecological impacts of powering “the cloud.” Can you explain the importance of this work?
Sybille Neumeyer: Beyond the CO2 emissions of data centers and digital platforms, the poster by Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne further highlights how the media shapes narratives and attention around the climate crisis, thus influencing our climate future. Referring to algorithmic advertising, the economic model boosting online journalism, they state: “Those who control the media, control the climate.” This dynamic was evident in the recent 2024 U.S. election, which took place a day before the exhibition opening. The climate crisis was hardly addressed in this election, which was, with $15.9 billion USD spent, the most expensive in history. Unlimited campaign financing since 2010 has enabled billionaire donors to dominate political discourse. Defining the content of media outlets and think tanks enables them to sideline urgent issues like the climate crisis for their own benefit. They influence information hierarchies, public priorities and thus policies, that ensure the perpetuation of their economies, which continue to enhance the climatic and ecological catastrophes.
In a subversive approach, Brain and Lavigne’s project ‘Synthetic Messenger’ (2022) hitchhikes on economic strategies to control media. They programmed a botnet that artificially inflates the monetary, editorial and social value of climate news by clicking on ads running alongside climate crisis articles. In the long run, this botnet might not be a real game changer in amplifying climate news, and Brain suggests installing AdBlockers as a more effective measure to counter the capitalistic scaffolding around journalism. Nevertheless, the installation renders clearly visible the very influence of media on climates.
Stefania Smolkina: ‘Planting,’ 2021, found footage video, 6 min 36 sec // © Stefania Smolkina, courtesy the artist
SS: In Stefania Smolkina’s video montage ‘Planting’ (2021), a sequence of news clips of world leaders planting trees foregrounds the relationship between global politics and global warming. This seemed poignant as the exhibition opened in the lead up to the UN COP29 in Azerbaijan, which critics might describe as a lot of “hot air.” The repetition of political tree plantings in the news media made this familiar trope seem totally bizarre. As a performance of cooperation and commitment, does it ever amount to anything?
SN: Since COP26 2021, planting trees as a carbon offset has become a popular idea, despite facing significant challenges and limitations. Smolkina’s found footage video of politicians planting trees, collages multiple corporate and governmental pledges relying on large-scale tree planting. Some of the footage depicts the planting of over 350 million trees as part of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Green Legacy Initiative—a quite ambitious move to counter the effects of deforestation and climate crisis. There are also images of Trump and Macron planting an oak tree in the lawns of the White House, portraying tree-planting as a symbol for international politics. Once the cameras had departed, the tree was uprooted and placed into quarantine to avoid the spread of diseases and invasive insects. There it reportedly died, analogous to Macron and Trump’s political “friendship.” This seemingly anecdotal story hints to crucial concerns: what happens to all the trees after being planted? Who takes care of their maintenance? Where do they find a nurturing ground to stand on?
Indeed, simplistic reforestation campaigns crumble under ecological realities: experts note a lack of available land, with tree-planting goals requiring an area five times the size of India. Poorly planned projects often harm ecosystems and fail to store carbon long-term, while many saplings die without care. Tackling the climate crisis requires neither quick fixes nor monocultural solutions, but thoughtful ecosystem restoration, agroforestry integration and prioritizing emission reductions at the source.
Sonja Hornung & Daniele Tognozzi: ‘ESG Show,’ 2022, research material, curtain, poster; installation view at D21 // Photo © Michael Moser, courtesy of D21 Kunstraum Leipzig
SS: Sonja Hornung & Daniele Tognozzi’s ‘ESG Show’ (2022) takes to task “Environment, Social, Governance” metrics formulated by a UN finance working group in 2004. ESG encourages investment in a range of “green” activities such as carbon capture infrastructures, a community urban gardening initiative and Social Impact Bonds. It has been criticized for prioritizing profits over environmental and social wellbeing and as a tool for “greenwashing.”
SN: Their artistic “research activism” maps the complex connections and interactions between various organizations, based on which different interests are played out. In the exhibition, we feature all their research materials hidden behind a huge green curtain. Drawing from these, the artists also developed the ‘ESG Shitshow’ (2023), a script for a melodrama that concerns the proliferation of critical analysis of greenwashing. On February 22nd, D21 will host a collective reading in which the audience will take the roles of a Black Rock sustainability investor, an expert leftist macroeconomist and former US vice-president Al Gore, among others.
João Enxuto & Erica Love: ‘A Film for People (From the Ashpit),’ 2024 and open-weather ‘DIY Satellite Ground Station Workshop’ 2024; installation view at D21 Kunstraum Leipzig // Photo © Sybille Neumeyer, courtesy of D21 Kunstraum Leipzig
SS: Accusations of “culture washing” are often levelled at extractivist industries when they sponsor museums, art prizes and events. A well-known case study is BP’s sponsorship of Tate and the comprehensive multi-year campaign by artist collective Liberate Tate to “free art from oil.”
SN: Yes, this is another thread in the exhibition, addressed by João Enxuto and Erica Love’s ‘A Film for People (from the Ashpit)’ (2024). Centering around EDP, the energy monopoly in Portugal, who founded and finances the MAAT – Museum of Art and Architecture, their work in progress frames the entanglement of climate catastrophe with forms of cultural and financial speculation. In a game engine animation, the artists draw together new links between artists, activists, entrepreneurs and other agents. For example, animated lump figures from a coal mining diorama join activists spraying paint on the museum’s walls. In dialogue with this work, is Oliver Ressler’s ‘Contours of the Coming World’ (2024). The poster series re-stages pictures from climate activism, in order to invite new cultural imaginations. By adding joyful and encouraging slogans to the fine drawings by Claudia Shioppa, Ressler propagates the need for transformation, asserting that social and climate justice requires replacing systems of war, inequality, unfair trade relations and ecological harm with democratic governance prioritizing the survival of life.
The exhibition further features a poetic weather cam Zoom conference, a critical deconstruction of TV weather reports, DIY radio practices for accessing satellite images, shells as blueprints for alternate climate archives and a filmic re-edit of cinematic propaganda for energy infrastructure projects. All these works define horizons for intervention. Reclaiming and recycling media and aesthetics becomes an empowering artistic means to decipher and counter predominant climate narratives.
Artist Info
Exhibition Info
D21 Kunstraum Leipzig
Group Show: ‘Teleconnections’
Exhibition: Nov. 7, 2024-Mar. 9, 2025
d21-leipzig.de
Demmeringstraße 21, 04177 Leipzig, click here for map
