Mikhail Karikis sees hope in younger generation as ‘Acoustics of Resistance’ engages with climate crisis at Derry’s Void

"I'm anxious for the next generation to be those who have political power because I really think the figures that are running this place belong to a generation that are either climate-deniers - I'm not saying all of them - or don't think of it as an urgent thing,” he told the ‘Journal’.

The Thessaloniki-born artist was speaking as he launched his ‘Acoustics of Resistance’ exhibition that runs at the Void Arts Centre until December 7.

Mikhail recently delivered a talk about both his practice and the new project as part of Bounce Arts Festival, 2024, through the University of Atypical.

"It's my second time here. I came here about 20 years ago. I haven't had a lot of time to explore the city because I've been working but I’ve interacted with several people and everybody is very friendly.

“‘Acoustics of Resistance' is an umbrella title for a lot of different works which I've been working on for several years since the pandemic - conversations about how the pandemic was really caused by humans and the way we relate to animals and the environment,” he explains.

The exhibition is comprised of twin installations – ‘Surging Seas’ and ‘The Weather Orchestra’ – that approach the theme of climate change from the perspectives of scientific data, collective and individual emotional response, speculative thinking and sounding.

“The first room [Surging Seas] is informed by climate science. It has maps which are sourced from climate modelling data which show us what the UK and Ireland will look like in 2050.

"We really see the transformation, especially of coastal areas, will be really dramatic.”

The work will resonate with citizens given climate modelling reported in this paper previously has shown large swathes of low-lying riverside and coastal areas of Derry and Inishowen could be under water as a result of rising sea levels by 2050.

‘Surging Seas’ provokes viewers to consider what might happen to the millions of people likely to be displaced in such a scenario.

“I was very shocked to see maps of London in 2050 which indicate that it will necessitate the relocation of millions of people.

“The question is, when are we really going to start talking about it and thinking about where these people are going to go?

"What's going to happen to all our basic infrastructure? Airports, roads, hospitals, schools, houses, all of that.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic Mikhail has been charting ever-increasing global temperatures. This figures on a large print in the same gallery space.

"This year we've had three consecutive days that were the hottest days in the planet in recorded history,” he notes.

Lip service is often paid to the younger generations and those yet to be born when people ask what about what will happen to their children and grandchildren in the event of a less habitable planet.

But ‘Surging Seas’ drives this home with a moving ‘message from the future’ premised on what the young people of 2050 might think of our current inertia.

“We only read the text. We don't hear voices and we don't see faces. It's a dialogue between two young people from the perspective of 2050.

"I've developed this with young people from Birmingham. I showed them the maps. This is what it looks like. What are you thinking? What conversation would you have and how would you be thinking about us in the present?

"We have this conversation which kind of humanises the problem. It’s not all about data. It's about what is our emotional response to it.

"And there is the question of how can we be responsible ancestors? What legacies are we leaving to the next generations?” he asks.

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Part of this installation incorporates placards that allude to eco-protests with images from local newspapers showing young people at demonstrations in the North.

"The idea is that there will be a series of workshops here in Void with young people to add more placards to the composition, to the installation.

"The workshops will focus on different sentiments the young people might have in relation to the theme of climate change and the future as well as what solutions they might imagine.”

The second installation, ‘The Weather Orchestra’, was created with diverse performers from different climes and takes the form of multi-channel video installation with surround sound.

The installation transforms the gallery space into an indoor weather system generated through sound vibration and singing.

Mikhail says it addresses the same theme of man-made climate change in a more poetic way.

“It's like a concert. So the visitors who come to the exhibition, first, they go through gallery one and think and engage with the issue in a more cerebral way maybe and in the second room they attend a concert.”

The work features two projections and one monitor in a three video channel installation with sound.

The viewer and listener are immersed in a soundscape created by wind machines, ceremonial rain sticks, ocean drums, aqua-phones and thunder sheets which generate a mini-weather system and conjure the awesome power of nature.

“The musicians combine them in different ways to create a kind of weather system so we move from rain, to wind, to fog, to a storm at sea,” Mikhail explains.

This map shows which Derry streets would be submerged if sea levels rise

On the LCD monitor folk singers from Madeira, mainland Portugal, Scandinavia and Syria complement this enveloping soundscape with sean-nós songs from various cultures each one addressing a different weather phenomena.

"These are very old or ancient folks songs,” Mikhail explains. “The Nordic one is an agricultural weather call. They would call for the sun to come out and the rain to go away so that the seeds would sprout and spring would start.

"The one from the Iberian peninsula and the one from Madeira are closer to what you might encounter here in Ireland because they express a relationship to the sea.

"One is a pagan-Christian song dedicated to Santa Barbara who in Iberia is the protector of the sailors and the saint of storms. Then there is a song about the fog. The Syrian singer sings in Kurdish.

"He lost some relatives on his way to Greece so what he sings is a mourning song addressed to the rain and the sea.”

All these old songs were born of a time when our ancestors were closer to the land and the sea and perhaps more fragile as a result?

“Fragile is one way of thinking about them but also I'm thinking more respectful of the force of nature and the rhythms of nature. I think of these songs as archives of knowledge transmitted from one generation to the next, i.e. when there is fog you do this, address the elements and give knowledge to the next generation, telling them that you need to be mindful of this.”

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Much of that old wisdom has sadly been lost. It’s a knowledge and understanding of nature that needs to be harnessed urgently, Mikhail believes.

"I hope people are engaged cerebrally and emotionally and it encourages people to have conversations with their children or with their friends.

"One of the reasons I decided to work more specifically on climate's impact on sea level is because we are going to see huge transformation.

"I was born in Thessaloniki which is a big port and maps of it in 2050 don't look very good. Half the city won't be around.”

As an artist Mikhail is anxious to see concerted action to address the climate crisis immediately.

"Political figures, I don't really know what they are waiting for to build roads, hospitals, schools, housing. These things take decades and if we are talking about the end of the century - it's not that long away, just one generation really – we’re going to have 200 million climate refugees globally.

"If no action is taken a lot of these people are going to be from these islands.”

Will we have to wait until the water is up to our necks – as some of the climate projections suggest it will be – before we act?

"It reminds me of the strange thing I often see on Instagram of people filming flooding and watching these disasters happening. They are in the bedroom and the water is in the kitchen. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for it to really enter your bedroom?

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"It's very strange. I wonder if it has something to do with our relationship with technology and spectacle.

"Of course it’s fascinating, it’s spectacular, it's sublime to see these types of events, entire cities being wiped out, but it seems that we have become inactive because of that spectacle, because technology facilitates that.

"We are distancing ourselves from the facts like it's a disaster movie and not actually happening to us. We are in that disaster movie.”

He has not lost hope however.

“The younger generation know more, are affected by it more and are really thinking about the future. I think they are more sensible somehow,” he says.

‘Acoustics of Resistance’ runs at the Void Arts Centre until December 7, 2024.

It’s nearly Christmas and there are still blackberries on the brambles