Announcing a new partnership between Autograph and Paul Mellon Centre

Over the next three years, Autograph and the Paul Mellon Centre will collaborate on a series of events, publications and conversations that centre the relationship of the arts and environmental justice.

Climate & Colonialism is a multi-year research project led by Sria Chatterjee at the Paul Mellon Centre. It provides a testing ground for transhistorical conversations and collaborations between art historians, artists and other scholarly and community groups thinking critically about the interconnected and enduring histories of colonialism, capitalism and climate change.

Since 1988, Autograph has championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.

Find out more about the project and this partnership here.

The first event of the partnership, Extractivism / Activism will take the shape of a three-day symposium and gathering taking place between 13-15 March 2024 in London. The arts have long been invested in highlighting the ongoing histories of resource extraction and its repercussions. This symposium asks: what next? Find out more about our open call for the symposium here.

Sria Chatterjee said "Autograph’s long-standing commitment to social justice and rights through the photography and lens-based works speaks particularly to Climate & Colonialism’s focus on environmental justice. The collaboration will strengthen the project’s intersectional approach in which overlapping systems of oppression are considered in dialogue with the past, present and future. We are excited to work with Mark and Bindi and look forward to the new directions this collaboration takes us in."

Mark Sealy and Bindi Vora of Autograph will also join the Climate & Colonialism project’s working group and engage with the project’s other core collaborators.