Sex Ecologies – a documentary introducing the arts-driven collaborative environmental humanities project, which explores gender, sex, and sexuality in the context of ecology. Meet the artists and the curators of the exhibition and public programme and hear them introduce the project in their own words. Sex Ecologies is founded in a collaboration between Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box – an environmental humanities collaboratory.
The documentary introduces the concept behind Sex Ecologies and its different iterations – an exhibition, a publication, and a public programme. The project is founded in the belief that environmental and social justice go hand in hand. Through a transdisciplinary approach, the exhibition critiques understandings of nature, gender, sexuality, and race that attempt to objectify and naturalize them. For example, “laws against nature” used to criminalize queer sexuality, and in many places still do. These norms are justified through evolutionary narratives exclusively permitting heterosexual reproduction. Everything that does not fit this norm is considered unhealthy, polluted, or “degenerate.” These norms have proven detrimental to humans and to the thing we call nature alike.
The Sex Ecologies documentary introduces the newly commissioned works by nine artists made specifically for the exhibition. During a collaborative process of 1,5 years, the artists participated in regular online meetings to workshop their artworks with the exhibition curators and with each other. The process was accompanied by an advisory board for cross-pollination composed of researchers from disciplines like gender studies, environmental humanities, communications, and Indigenous studies. This methodology is unusual for group exhibitions, where artists mostly work alone and do not meet until the opening.
The documentary also introduces the Sex Ecologies public programme, which was curated by the center for art, knowledge, and society RAW Material Company in Dakar, Senegal. The public programme curators built the talks, screenings, and performances on their previous project Who Said It Was Simple (2014 and ongoing) discussing difference, minority, and margins with an emphasis on sexuality in Senegal and Africa today.
The Sex Ecologies documentary is produced by Treat Agency
Image credits:
Image 1. Jes Fan: Mother of Pearl 方†(2021). Color print on satin. 76,2 x 127 cm. Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Courtesy the artist and Empty Gallery. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 2. Margrethe Pettersen: L ibmat (2021). Sound installation and silk room. 280 cm height x 380 cm diameter, sound, 20’ (loop). Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 3. Anna Tje: I'm So Glad You Chose Me (2021), detail. Multimedia installation with ceramics, vinyl player,45rpm vinyl record, sound: side A 4’9”, side B 4, video, seating device. Dimensions variable. Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Courtesy the artist Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 4. Installation view of Alberta Whittle’s works in the exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Courtesy the artist and Copperfield, London. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 5. Anne Duk Hee Jordan: The Worm - Terrestrial, Fantastic and Wet (2021), detail. Multimedia installation with sculptures, black light, video 12’51” (in collaboration with Pauline Doutreluingne). Dimensions variable, site-specific. Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Commissioned by Urania Berlin e.V, Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 6. Installation view of Jessie Kleemann’s work Sassuma Arnaa (2021). Drawings, video and performance. Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 7. Ibrahim Fazlic: The Tingly Room (2021), detail. Sound and multimedia installation, 35’ multilogue (loop). Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Courtesy the artist. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 8. Okwui Okpokwasili with Peter Born: Repose without rest without end (2021), detail. Multimedia installation with video and sound. Dimensions variable. Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Courtesy the artists. Commissioned by Kunsthall Trondheim and The Seed Box. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
Image 9. Pedro Neves Marques with Haut: The Ovary (2021). 16 mm film transferred to video, 5’ sound. Part of the group exhibition Sex Ecologies at Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway. Courtesy the artists and Galleria Umberto di Marino. Commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial with the support of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Photo: Daniel Vincent Hansen.
