Announcing our Prosiect 40°C Activists

Today, we’re delighted to announce some of the activists who will take part in our Gwreiddioli residency as part of Prosiect 40°C, our long-term and ambitious project responding to the climate crisis.

Eddie Ladd, Marva Jackson Lord and Becca Voelcker will lead sessions with our resident artists at the Centre for Alternative Technology this August - and there are more speakers to be announced soon. Each bringing different specialities and outlooks, these 3 guest speakers will discuss their work and inspire the artists to consider diverse perspectives on how the climate crisis intersects with everything else that defines life today.  

Guided by lead artist Dylan Huw and supported by Natural Resources Wales, the Gwreiddioli residency offers a transformative opportunity for 5 artists to ambitiously explore the potential of their work, to push the boundaries of theatre and to challenge common preconceptions about the climate crisis. If you would like to register your interest, you’ll find more information here – the closing date is getting closer, 12pm on 5 June.

Here’s more information about our wonderful guest speakers:

Eddie Ladd is a physical theatre performer creating site-specific pieces as well
as pieces for ordinary theatres and taking them on tour around the world. During the 2020 Lockdown, she presented a new online form piece about her farm and community, Fy Ynys Las, and had the pleasure of collaborating with the people of Llandysul to create a small site-specific cinema the following here, a collaboration which continues this September. She is one of three members of the Light / Ladd / Emberton dance company and the ompany’s
latest work, a film called Amser | Time, is about the climate crisis. "Nid yw’n gofyn bywyd moethus."

Marva Jackson Lord is a Canadian-Jamaican artist based in Bannau Brycheiniog. She is a writer and digital creator, whose work across poetry, sound and digital media explores landscape and fantastical narratives. Her work is rooted in an extensive background in community radio, where radio becomes an audio collage with music, found and archival sound, poetry and storytelling. Her visual works, Ecosystem and Meditation on Multilingualism, reflect on voice, language and the realities of being a Black woman living in rural Wales. Commissioned by Peak and Pegwn, these works trace linked histories and colonial legacies, a long-term exploration of language, emotional memory and a deep personal connection with the land.

Becca Voelcker is a film historian and cultural critic who writes on film, art and visual culture, particularly in relation to politics and ecology. She earned her PhD at Harvard University in 2021, writing a global history of eco-political film. She has lived and worked in Wales, England, the US and Japan. Becca contributes to BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking, Film Comment Podcast and the collective mould.earth. Her writing has appeared in Screen, MIRAJ, Sight & Sound, Frieze, Film Comment, and Art Asia Pacific.

Dylan Huw, lead artist and curator of the Gwreiddioli residency, said:

“Every activist who will join us at CAT brings extensive experience of exploring the intersections between the enormity of the climate and nature crises, everyday lifef in Wales today, and the potential for the arts to open minds and create change. They encompass a number of fields, specialities and backgrounds, and I can’t wait to continue talking with them over the summer to prepare sessions that will inspire and motivate the Gwreiddioli artists.”