This hybrid workshop is part of a long-term collaboration with The University of Sheffield, the international network Women in Informal Work Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) and a Brazilian artist Veronica Franca, who has worked with waste pickers in Belo Horizonte to develop a series of very beautiful photographs.
The exhibition ‘Climate Change and Waste Pickers’ CATA is one of the 'ordinary actions' to mitigate climate change as part of Vanesa Castán Broto’s ERC funded Lo-Act project. The curation is by the photographer and sociologist Sonia Maria Dias and thematizes two of the great dilemmas of contemporary humanity, the climate emergency and the social inclusion agenda, in a world that is increasingly marked by the worsening of socio-environmental dilemmas. CATA is made up of 10 images that were captured and subsequently constructed in the form of a sensibility about the universe of recyclable collectors - an important environmental agent in the context of the climate emergency.
The exhibition has already been showcased in the famous Minas Gerais Vale Memorial in Brazil between November 2023 and February 2024. We want to bring the exhibition to the UK to further showcase to the UK public and highlight the importance of the work of waste workers in tackling climate change.
The event will be chaired by Professor Dorothea Kleine, Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development. It will include a presentation by Professor Vanesa Castán Broto of the Urban Institute, who will talk about the empirical work that grounded the photographs that reflects the encounter between visual arts, sociology and popular education. This will be followed by a response by Dr SJ Cooper- Knock, Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Department of Sociological Studies, on how art can be used as a means to engage with disadvantaged communities. Finally, we will hear from visual artist/photographer Verônica Alkmim França on how the photos were taken and the inspiring story of waste pickers, before reviewing a short film on the Cyanotype technique. We will then view the exhibition itself for those attending in person followed by a drinks reception and a link will be shared for online participants to view the art.
Living & working in a changing climate: women waste pickers' experience
