Echoes of the Sanctuary
Exhibition at Ocean Space - Venice
April 5 – November 2, 2025

Design: T.O.T Studio
Research
Ocean Space Venice
Exhibitions

The exhibition Echoes of the Sanctuary presents TBA21–Academy's long-term work in Jamaica, weaving together marine conservation, regenerative development, and artistic production. In addition to making this program public in Venice for the first time, including prior artist residencies, the exhibition presents the eponymous research project (2022–2025) led by critical geographer Louise Carver. Echoes of the Sanctuary explores the affirmative possibilities of convivial conservation with TBA21–Academy's Jamaican partner organization, the Alligator Head Foundation. 

Convivial (literally "living with") conservation is an international research and advocacy agenda promoting "coexistence, (bio)diversity, and justice," shifting the norms of mainstream approaches. The exposition outlines the contours of this work and its possibilities in Jamaica, aligning with the AHF's vision for transformative, practical experimentation—combining embedded artistic residencies, research, advocacy, and community-based conservation for the decade to come.

Fieldwork, archival research, theoretical perspectives, and proposals for convivial conservation are presented. In addition, interview and ethnographic recordings are reconstructed as a multi-channel audio platform, creating a polyphonic atmosphere of rural Jamaican and Kingston environmental activism. Shaped by urgent calls for transformative change in planetary governance, convivial conservation advocates for the reconnection between nature and people and the economic, epistemic, and emotional healing required for coexistence to become possible.
 
CURATOR
Louise Carver, PhD is a human geographer and political ecologist exploring how governance, knowledge, politics, and technologies shape the interactions between environment and society. Her transdisciplinary work follows critical questions of value and valuation in the green and blue economy, specifically in relation to biodiversity. She works across research, policy, and contemporary arts and culture settings, bringing these together while bridging science and society for real-world challenges. She is a founding member of the Convivial Conservation Centre, based at Wageningen University, with a global network of partners reimagining conservation science, practice, and economy in the 21st century.