Our Time on Earth

We belong to a magnificent planet, Earth. Humans are just one species among millions, coexisting in an expansive living network. Immerse yourself in installations envisioned by artists, designers, scientists, technologists and changemakers from across 12 countries. Their cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations open portals to a shared future, in which planet and people flourish together.

Part of PEM’s Climate + Environment Initiative, this traveling exhibition from the Barbican Centre in London celebrates the power of global creativity to transform the conversation around the climate emergency. The structures and design featured in the exhibition are sourced from biodegradable, sustainable materials to minimize carbon footprint. We invite you to imagine our ideal future world. What will it look like? How will we use the precious time we have here? Technology has brought us closer to nature than we have ever been before, and Indigenous insight continues to reconnect us to our roots. What will it take to live together in harmony?

Walk up to a table set for dinner, but imagine the guests include a fox and a wasp. Plunge into a virtual ocean with magnified plankton, and peer through the layers of a tree to experience the microscopic foundations of life.

Our Time on Earth is produced and curated by the Barbican with guest curators FranklinTill and co-produced by Musée de la civilisation, Québec City, Canada. This exhibition is made possible by Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum.

Share your impressions, snapshots and tales with us on social media using #OurTimeOnEarth

TOP IMAGE: Victoria Vesna, Noise Aquarium (detail), 2022. Installation view of the Our Time on Earth exhibition at the Barbican Centre. ©Danann Breathnach Photography.