Gathering Ground

How can we support our living worlds?

Gathering Ground explores threatened ecologies. It reflects on what cultivating relationships can look like when they are built on principles of equity. The exhibition brings together artistic practices that defend and embrace interconnectedness in our current ecological crisis.

Ecology refers to the relationships between living beings and their environments. It encompasses the delicate web of connections that sustain us all. Situated in the decommissioned oil and coal power station that is now Tate Modern, Gathering Ground offers a space to share the contradictions and tensions that arise when we think and act ecologically.

Looking at the ground on which we gather, the artworks ask:

How can we live with and make sense of destruction and loss?

How can we develop connections grounded in reciprocity?

What does it mean to be a good custodian for future worlds?

The artists’ practices are firmly grounded in land and place. Their works deal with issues such as displacement, alongside the destruction of waterways and land due to economic and military interests. Some honour Indigenous knowledges, while others highlight strategies for resistance in a precarious world.

At the heart of the exhibition is a year-long series of talks and workshops, including a new participatory commission by Abbas Zahedi. The programme invites visitors to explore these questions collectively. The shared discussions will form part of Tate’s research, reflecting on how to evolve as a sustainable and equitable museum in the 21st century.

CAROLINA CAYCEDO, YUMA, OR THE LAND OF FRIENDS II

GAURI GILL & RAJESH VANGAD, THE EYE IN THE SKY

The works in this room consider their environments as living beings. Carolina Caycedo, Gauri Gill and Rajesh Vangad highlight the experiences of land defenders and water guardians. They invite us to reflect on Indigenous knowledge and kinship with the land that are often lost through large-scale industrial developments.

Caycedo combines satellite images of the El Quimbo Dam in Colombia, during its construction, with aerial photographs and maps of the region before the dam was built. Repurposing images, typically used for military and extractive purposes, the artist resists exploitative ways of seeing and categorising land and waterways. In doing so, Caycedo creates a portrait of the land across time, drawing our attention to the impact that mega infrastructure projects have on river ecologies.

The dam’s construction displaced local communities, caused extensive environmental damage and redirected Yuma, Colombia’s largest river. Caycedo, who grew up by the river’s basin, explains: ‘I began to understand that the river is a political subject with agency to change the course of events and with a spirit and feeling that becomes an extension of the community that coexists with a river.’

The collaborative work, The Eye in the Sky, shows Warli artist Vangad looking out over a revered mountain in the Dahanu area of the state of Maharashtra, in western India. This is a site sacred to the Warli, one of the many Indigenous Peoples in the Indian subcontinent (collectively known as Adivasi). Vangad added detailed drawings to the surface of the photograph – taken by Gill – including pictograms of birds and flying creatures, Warli gods and airplanes. He describes this as ‘the story of civilisation, the eye in the sky.’ The work depicts the Warli worldview of evolution across time, with the circle of gods and goddesses seated around the peak of the mountain, which forms the pupil of the eye.

Adivasi ways of life and of protecting the land are often at odds with extractive state and corporate powers. In this way, the work hints at surveillance and control. It foregrounds rich knowledge systems that are sometimes ignored today.

ABBAS AKHAVAN, STUDY FOR A MONUMENT

Study for a Monument is an ongoing body of work that archives plant species native to the ancient region of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in present-day Iraq. Decades of war and state intervention – such as the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), the First Gulf War (1991) and the Invasion of Iraq (2003) – have had devastating consequences on the ecology of this area.

Akhavan has hand sculpted and enlarged each plant out of wax then cast them in bronze. The casts, resembling burnt fragments, are shown on white bed sheets on the ground. They recall pages from botanical studies, confiscated goods or objects laid out for examination. Akhavan’s choice of material is significant, as bronze is linked with ancient Mesopotamian weaponry as well as historical memorials and monuments. The horizontal display on the floor is unlike the traditional vertical orientation of commemorative sculptures. Instead, it evokes makeshift funerary displays, sites of mass burial or piles of shrapnel.

The work draws on research that Akhavan has carried out at Kew Gardens in London and at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. Drawing on the botany and history of Iraq, the work reconsiders monument-making by shifting away from traditions of human-centric memorialisation.

BRUCE CONNER, CROSSROADS

This black and white film shows slow-motion replays of the underwater nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll in Aelon Kein Ad (the Marshall Islands), in the central Pacific Ocean, on 25 July 1946. The film soundtrack consists of two distinct parts. The first section, produced by Patrick Gleason, recreates the sound of bomb explosions, countdowns and plane engines alongside birdsongs. The second part features a psychedelic musical score composed by Terry Riley.

Conner made the film by splicing together declassified footage sourced from the US National Archives, an experimental technique of montage filmmaking. The images Conner relied on were taken by over 300 cameras, which were stationed around the atoll. In the film, the explosion is shown 15 times at different speeds and from different viewpoints.

The United States carried out 67 nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958. Their cumulative force amounted to 7,000 times that of the atomic bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in August 1945. The resulting ecological damage alongside the long-lasting effects of nuclear radiation were devastating. They affect the region to this day, with some of the atolls still being uninhabitable. While residents were evacuated to other islands during the tests, the impact radius was underestimated. Today, the situation in Aelon Kein Ad is aggravated by rising sea levels and the climate emergency.

Made in 1976, CROSSROADS has been described as a portrait of the nuclear era that is both terrifying and has a kind of ‘cataclysmic beauty’. In the context of our current climate crisis, the work can raise questions about environmental justice and whose lifeworlds are deemed disposable.

ABBAS ZAHEDI, BEGIN AGAIN

Abbas Zahedi’s sonic installation creates a space for the collective processing of ecological grief. Through this work the artist asks, ‘How can we make sense of a world increasingly shaped by loss and disconnection?’

Instruments and playback devices, made from recycled materials, have been plugged into Tate Modern’s utility pipes and deeper architecture. Zahedi invites visitors to tune in to the site, engaging in what he describes as ‘seismic resonance’ – a dynamic interplay between sound, body and space.

Our living worlds are formed of interdependent systems and relationships. In Begin Again sound flows through the space like a seismic vibration, uniting different bodies in a shared experience. The composition shifts between moments of harmony and disintegration. Each sonic collapse prompts the piece to rebuild, emphasising the power of renewal and beginning again.

As part of this work, on the first Saturday of each month Zahedi will host a ‘support group’ open to all, in collaboration with thinkers, artists and musicians. Through collective listening and discussion, participants will imagine what new frameworks are needed to protect and restore ecological connectivity.

EDGAR CALEL, RU K’ OX K’OB’EL JUN OJER ETEMAB’EL

Edgar Calel’s Ru k’ ox k’ob’el jun ojer etemab’el (The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge) consists of a collection of objects and a ritual. The ritual, performed live by the artist or a member of his Mayan Kaqchikel community in Chi Xot/San Juan Comalapa in the Guatemalan Highlands, is a blessing for the Ancestors. It expresses gratitude to them and to the land for their wisdom, experience and guidance.

The artwork is a conduit for Indigenous knowledge, highlighting the importance of kinship in Mayan cosmology. This is intended as a connection to the land, the Earth and the community, echoing across time. Calel challenges individualistic notions of ownership, rooted in capitalist values. He invites visitors to question strict distinctions between human and non-human life. The work raises questions about how we care for the Earth, our ancestors and one another.

In a unique agreement with the artist, Tate is the custodian of the work for 13 years. Tate will look after the lessons embedded in it and the system of knowledge that it holds. Calel explains, ‘The purpose of exhibiting this work [at Tate] was to convey that not all things are for sale – there are things that belong to humanity and that no one can possess. I believe it is only fair that the practices of Indigenous people, even when circulating in an art market, continue to belong to them.’

OUTI PIESKI, GURŽOT JA GUOVSSAT SKÁBMAVUOĐĐU

In these works, Outi Pieski addresses the suppression and erasure of Sámi customs, languages and rights. The artist created elements of the installation with women duodjárs (duodji practitioners) in Finland, Norway and Sweden using Sámi shawl-crafting techniques. The Sámi practice of ‘duodji’ was marginalised following the Nordic colonisation of Sápmi, the traditional territory of the Sámi people that extends across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Not to be confused with the concept of ‘craft’, duodji merges practical making skills with Sámi values, spirituality and environmental knowledge.

In Sámi philosophy, the past is considered part of the present and the future. It highlights our responsibility towards past and future generations. Pieski sees duodji and the collective act of tying knots as a fundamental aspect of her work, creating living connections across time. As she explains, ‘duodji is a collective way of creating, a counterforce against individual-centeredness.’

The works on display embody the Sámi philosophy of ‘soabadit’ (positive reciprocity), a worldview that sees all entities as equal beings. Pieski’s practice highlights the need to protect the Arctic environment from exploitation as a source of minerals, fossil fuels and renewable energy. Through her work she advocates for the inherent rights and value of all living things, emphasising the interdependence of Earth’s systems.

ZHENG BO, PTERIDOPHILIA I

Zheng Bo’s work explores interspecies connections. The film shows six people walking through the Taiwanese forest, where they enter into physical and emotional contact with ferns. They form relationships that are both erotic and intimate. Zheng’s work is informed by queer ecology. It embraces fluidity, rejecting binary understandings of ‘nature’ as well as set categories such as human and non-human. In this film, the artist challenges the idea that humankind is separate and superior to non-human life.

Zheng explains, ‘People always ask about exploitation after they watch the film, which is partly my intention. I wanted people to think about our ethical relationships with plants.’ For most societies it is ‘natural’ to eat plants but ‘unnatural’ to make love to them. Plants are treated as resources, only valued for their gastronomic, aesthetic and medicinal functions.

Pteridophilia I challenges us to cultivate relationships – erotic or otherwise – with other species. Zheng invites us to reflect on radical forms of human-plant connection and coexistence that don’t rely on domination or control. As the artist highlights, ‘Only when we extend our imagination can we learn to appreciate the complex existence of all living things.’