Lika Tarkhan-Mouravi

Re: Over everything which exists under the sky is a collaborative and interdisciplinary project taking place at Gasworks, London, from October 2018 to May 2019. A group of international curating students has initiated the first curatorial residency at Gasworks to run alongside the institution’s long-established international artist residency programme. Over an eight month period the curators-in-residence are transforming Gasworks’ Participation Space into a temporary research studio, questioning what it means to be a resident in both the art world and the wider geopolitical context of restricted mobility. Current discourses around human mobility are being explored through the lens of the non-human and the extra-terrestrial:

What are the links between human movement and that of extra-terrestrial objects, such as stars, planets, and satellites?

Does the ‘uprooting’ and ‘re-grounding’ of plants directly speak to the construction of identity in relation to displacement?

What is the relationship between horizontal and vertical forms of colonisation?

Engaging with artists, botanists, astrologers, writers and a constellation of other constituents, the project proposes new ways of encountering both human and non-human journeys. The title 'Re: Over everything which exists under the sky' quotes Belinda Zhawi’s Dear Whinchat, a poem that touches upon themes of displacement and belonging from the perspective of a migrating bird.

The collaborative research gathered over the duration of the project will culminate in an Open Studio between 23–26 May 2019, when the space will be open to the public, showcasing newly commissioned works and research by seven invited artists: Xinhao Cheng, Helena Hunter, Mati Jhurry, Romy Kießling, Marissa Malik, Niccolò Moronato and Fatima Uzdenova. Offering a multiplicity of perspectives upon patterns of human and non-human movement, the project embodies both collective research and speculation.