Good Ancestors exhibition 2024
Good Ancestors: Art and Culture for Future Generations
Exhibit to support the UN Declaration on Future Generations organised by the co-facilitators of the Declaration, the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the United Nations, UN General Assembly Building, Visitors Lobby, Gallery C, September 16th through 27th, 2024
The information below is provided to accompany the exhibition. Some of the content was licensed explicitly for the exhibition and must not be reproduced without prior consent of the respective owners, listed below.
Introduction
In the early 21st Century, short-termism is ubiquitous – and yet the world has never faced so many complex challenges that require a long term perspective to solve.
On current trajectories, the planet we hand over to tomorrow's generations could be in a worse state than the one we inherited. The continued progress, or even existence, of future generations is therefore not ensured. While social, economic and technological advances enable some of us to live longer and better lives, we have also created pathways to existential risks for humanity.
Rooted in indigenous (Haudenosaunee) philosophy, the Seventh Generation Principle emphasizes that decisions made today should be considered in the light of their impact on at least the next seven generations. This intergenerational responsibility must be applied to the decisions we make today. We are dependent on one another to create a peaceful, inclusive, just and sustainable world, not only across borders but also across time.
How can we be good ancestors towards future generations and leave a better world behind than the one we inherited?
The ‘Good Ancestors’ exhibition invites you to journey across time, from the coast of the Indian Subcontinent to the depths of the Amazon, exploring art projects, cultural practices and traditions from across the world, deeply rooted in intergenerational thinking and our shared human experience.
Woven throughout the exhibition are universal themes of community, ritual, and care—guided by the belief that future generations must be central to all our actions today.
Through art and culture, we are reminded of our collective responsibility towards future generations, cultivating the awareness and frameworks needed to safeguard their rights. By embracing the idea of our far-distant descendants, we find a unifying force, one that transcends division and inspires collaboration. Safeguarding future generations may be humanity's most powerful legacy and the key to our collective existence.
Organisers
Organised by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the United Nations, 2024
Photo Credits
- Cave of the Hands: 1. © Pablo Gimenez; 2. CC BY-SA 3.0 by Fjturban; 3. CC-BY-SA 2.0 Carlos Alberto Zito
- Ancestors Dreaming: Laurielle Noel © Ainsley Burrows (3x)
- Future Library: 1+2. Kristin von Hirsch; 3. Einar Aslaksen all © Katie Patterson Studios
- Great African Art Banner: 1+3. © Emmanuel Motta/GAAB; 2. © Collin Isimbwa / GAAB
- Time Pyramid 1+2. © Felix Schmitt; 3. © Oliver Waimann
- Uffington Horse: © Peter Landers (3x)
- Clock of the Long Now: Chris Baldwin & Jesse Chandler © The Long Now Foundation (3x)
- Fishermen and the Ocean: © Subodh Kerkar (3x)
- Longplayer: 1. © James Whitaker; 2+3. © Jem Finer
- Spirits of Transformation: © Paulo Desana (3x)
- Cage Project: © John Cage Organ Foundation (3x)
- Ghost Island: © Lisandro Suriel (3x)
- Future Design: 1. © Reiichiro Ishii; 2+3. © Tatsuyoshi Saijo, Yahaba FDWS
- Fungal Futures: 1+2. © Melissa Ingaruca Moreno; 3. © Kira Koch / Melissa Ingaruca Moreno
- De Letters van Utrecht: 1+2. © Dick Sijtsma; 3. © Ramses Singeling - Pergamijn
- Collective Time Capsule: 1. © Angelina Kumar & Hanneke Verheijke; 2+3. © Martin Kunze
- Several of the photos on this webpage from the exhibit on the wall and the opening are by Chantal Heijnen.
Contributors, who helped prepare the exhibition
Alexandra Helfrich, Burbank, CA, USA; Alimi Salifou, Lagos, Nigeria (Partnership for Future Generations in Africa, Intergenerational Center for Global Action); Anastasia Evgrafova, Kazakhstan; Anneli Borgmann, Halberstadt, Germany (Cage Project); Angelina Kumar, artist from Delhi, India; Anne Beate Hovind, Oslo, Norway (Future Library); Barbara Laber, Munich, Germany (Zeitpyramide); Christopher Daniel, London, UK (Polysemic, Long Now London); Claire Marshall, Sydney, Australia (Museum of Futures); Claudette Salinas Leyva, Mexico, Mexico (SOIF); Danielle Engelman, San Francisco, USA (Long Now Foundation); Erlijn Mulder, Utrecht, The Netherlands (Letters of Utrecht); Julia Paes Leme, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (Museu do Amanhã/ IDG); Georg Weckwerth, Vienna, Austria; Hanneke Verheijke, Utrecht, The Netherlands (Letters of Utrecht); Jacob Ellis, Cardiff, Wales; Jem Finer, London, UK (Longplayer); Lisa Russell, Mombasa, Kenya; Lorna Okeng, Kampala, Uganda, Art Advisor and Curator of the Great African Arts Banner; Lukas Pfaller, Dresden, Germany (Zeitpyramide); Lydia Caldana, São Paulo, Brazil (Future Resources); Mallory Profeta, Utrecht, The Netherlands (Long-term Art Projects); Marina Piquet, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (Museu do Amanhã/IDG); Masako Ichihara, Kyoto, Japan (Future Design); Mehdi Nemri, Djerba, Tunisia; Melissa Ingaruca Moreno, Lima, Peru (Natura, Mycohakers Berlin); Michael Münker, Utrecht, The Netherlands (milliongenerations.org); Muhammad Dauda, Nigeria; Nathan Leonard, Tanzania; Rainer O. Neugebauer, Halberstadt,Germany (Cage Project); Ruben van Gogh, Utrecht, The Netherlands (Letters of Utrecht); Richard Fisher, London, UK (author ‘The Long View’); Tatsuyoshi Saijo, Kyoto, Japan (Future Design); Umar Sheraz, Islamabad, Pakistan (COMSATS University); Vidya Kandadai Giridharan, Vienna, Austria; Werner Waimann, Wemding, Germany (Zeitpyramide)
Join hands with deep-time ancestors
Cave of the Hands (Cueva de las Manos)
- Location: Santa Cruz, Argentina
- Established: ca. 7300 BCE (earliest prints)
- Artists: unknown
- UNESCO World Heritage Site
Many of the imprints of hands in the Cueva de los Manos in Argentina are almost 10,000 years old.
The strikingly modern handwave links humans across time. By imagining a man, woman or child placing their hand on the same rock surface many thousands of years ago, this ancient artwork bridges the gap between now and then, inviting people to reflect on the long-lived cultural heirlooms we have inherited – and the legacies we all leave behind.
Photo Credits
- 1. © Pablo Gimenez
- 2. CC BY-SA 3.0 by Fjturban
- 3. CC-BY-SA 2.0 Carlos Alberto Zito
New Mythologies
Ancestors Dreaming
- Location: Jamaica
- Established: 2023
- Artist: [Ainsley Burrows
The practice of artist Ainsley Burrows is deeply rooted in themes of Afro-Futurism – a way of looking at the future and alternate realities through a Black cultural lens – as well as the exploration of the future of dreaming.
His paintings often feature abstract figures depicted in disjointed movements, suggesting multiple perspectives and moments in time. The sharp lines within his compositions create a sense of confinement, yet certain elements break free from the constraints, resulting in refracted visual echoes and a simultaneous disruption of time and space.
Photo credits
- Laurielle Noel © Ainsley Burrows
Books that can't be read until the next century
Future Library
- Location: Oslo, Norway
- Established: 2014
- Duration: 100 years
- Artist: Katie Paterson
- Maintained by: Future Library Trust
A forest in Norway is growing paper for books held in secret for future generations. At a ceremony every year, a writer contributes a text that won’t be published until 2114. It will be printed on the paper from the trees.
Conceived by the artist Katie Paterson, the project began with a contribution from Margaret Atwood. Each author since then has written a work they will not live to see published, which they hope will find a receptive reader in an unknown future. “Future Library questions the present tendency to think in short bursts of time, making decisions only for us living now,” says Paterson.
Photo credits
- 1+2. Kristin von Hirsch © Katie Paterson Studios
- 3. Einar Aslaksen © Katie Paterson Studios
The largest African art piece ever made
The Great African Art Banner
- Location: Uganda (Presence - Pan African)
- Conceptualized 2010;
- Registered 2022
- Artist: Various (56,000)
- Maintained by: “Great African Art Banner” Initiative
Over the next two years, 56,000 artworks representing the 55 African nations and the African diaspora will make a 55km-long physical art collection called the Great African Art Banner. It will be repeated every four years perpetually towards 2063.
The establishment of the first banner will build to the 2026 Great Africa Arts Music and Culture Festival (bringing 56 countries to participate) – the biggest Olympic - like convergence of the arts since 1977’s FESTAC festival in Nigeria.
Photo credits
- 1+3. © Emmanuel Motta/GAAB
- 2. © Collin Isimbwa / GAAB
The pyramid that will take 1,200 years to build
Time Pyramid (Zeitpyramide)
- Location: Wemding, Germany
- Established: 1993
- Duration: 1,200 years
- Artist: Manfred Laber
- Maintained by: Stiftung Wemdinger Zeitpyramide
In Bavaria in 1993, Manfred Laber initiated construction of a pyramid of 120 blocks. One added every decade. The project began to commemorate the city’s 1,200th anniversary. Wemding expects to continue building and maintaining the pyramid for another 1,200 years.
Initially, the pyramid was controversial. Today, the town is invested in its construction. There are four blocks so far – the most recent in 2023. Each new placement reminds locals and visitors of the many generations who will follow them.
Photo credits
- 1+2. © Felix Schmitt
- 3. © Oliver Waimann
more information (English)/(German)
This ancient horse must be maintained or it will disappear
The White Horse of Uffington
- Location: Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
- Established: ~1,000 BCE
- Artist: Unknown
- Custodians: English Heritage; The National Trust; Long Now London
Dating to the Bronze Age, a horse the size of a football field is carved into the grass of a hill in Southern England.
Left alone, it would be overgrown and disappear within a decade, so it has been maintained for 3,000 years by a process of “rechalking”. Every year, the UK National Trust – and volunteers such as the Long Now London group – attend the site with mallets and buckets of fresh chalk to ensure this ancient artwork continues to exist for future generations to see. It reminds us that long-term cultural legacies often require maintenance – and if we want them to last, we need communities willing to take on that mantle within their lifetimes.
Photo credits
- © Peter Landers (3x)
More information: Uffington White Horse
A clock designed to keep time for ten millennia
The Clock of the Long Now
- Location: Texas, USA
- Established: 31 December 1999
- Artist: Danny Hillis
- Duration: 10,000 years
- Maintained by: The Long Now Foundation
The Clock of the Long Now is an immense mechanical monument, installed in a mountain in Texas, and designed to keep accurate time for 10,000 years. It is hundreds of feet tall, engineered to require minimal maintenance, and powered by mechanical energy harvested from sunlight as well as visitors. The Clock offers an enduring symbol of our personal connection to the distant future.
Ten thousand years is about the age of modern civilization, so The Clock will measure out a future of civilization equal to its past. This assumes our civilization is in the middle of whatever journey we are on - an implicit statement of optimism.
Photo credits
- Chris Baldwin & Jesse Chandler © The Long Now Foundation (3x)
Oceanic feeling: sensing the eternal currents of the sea
Fishermen and the Ocean
- Location: India
- Established: 2019
- Duration: Temporary
- Artist: Subodh Kerkar
Subodh Kerkar’s images of Indian fishermen celebrate the long- term role the ocean plays in shaping civilizations.
“I have had the opportunity to know the life of fishermen at close quarters, since I used to practise medicine in a fishing village. The ocean is not just the provider of fish; their existence is marinated in the ocean. Through my works I have tried to present this idea of inseparability. The fishermen become the fish bone. The fishermen become the boat. The fishermen sit in a circle to perform some oceanic ritual. The fishermen sit in two rows touching the soles of their feet to mimic the keel of a boat. The fishermen line up to pay homage to the ocean. They walk along the waves.” – Subodh Kerkar
Photo credits
- © Subodh Kerkar (3x)
The sound of the Future: A 1,000-year musical composition
Longplayer Location: London, UK, public listening points, audio stream Established: 31 December 1999 Duration: 1,000 years Artist: Jem Finer Maintained by: [The Longplayer Trust Longplayer is a 1,000-year-long musical composition playing amid the hustle and bustle of London and beyond. Created from an algorithmic score and 234 singing bowls, and performed to date both by computer and by musicians in live concerts, the project encourages visitors and listeners to take a long-term perspective.
As trustee Gavin Starks writes: “Longplayer helps us ask many questions about our world and our role in its future... what might be happening in the future? What might our role be? What might our impact be? How might we communicate across 40 generations?”
Photo credits
- 1. © James Whitaker
- 2+3. © Jem Finer
Pamurimasa: Spirits of Transformation
Pamürimasa Spirits of Transformation (Espíritos da Transformação)
- Location: Brazil
- Established: 2021
- Artist: Paulo Desana
For the Indigenous peoples of the Upper Rio Negro, the myth of the Cobra-Canoe, or the “canoe of transformation,” explains how humanity was formed within the great snake, establishing communities along the river.
This work aims to explore connections between mythology, tradition, art, culture, identity, and photography, based on research into the myth of the journey of the Cobra-Canoe of Transformation, or as it is called in the Tukano language, Pamürimasa (the “Spirits of Transformation” or those who emerged from the river waters).
The project’s focus is to highlight what Indigenous people have inherited from their ancestors.
Photo credits
- © Paulo Desana
Paulo Desana's webpage on indigena.art
The worlds slowest concert
Cage Project Halberstadt
- Location: Halberstadt, Germany Established: 2001
- Duration: 639 years
- Artist: John Cage
- Maintained by: John Cage Organ Foundation
In the 1980s, the composer John Cage wrote the piece ORGAN2/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible), which as the title suggested, was not intented to be performed with haste.
In Halberstadt, a special organ in an empty church is now playing Cage’s score − and remarkably, it won’t reach the end until the year 2640. Powered by bellows, the organ plays a single chord for months on end, only changing once every few years.
The eerie, meditative performance is designed to encourage listeners to slow down and reflect on their roles and responsibilities within long-term time.
Photo credits
- © John Cage Organ Foundation
The ghosts of the past - reframed
Ghost Island
- Location: Sint Maarten, Caribbean
- Established: 2019
- Artist: Lisandro Suriel
Lisandro Suriel, a native of Sint Maarten, draws from the rich confluence of Atlantic and Caribbean cultures, infusing his work with the magic realism intrinsic to the Caribbean. His art delves into the spectral realms of ghost stories, superstitions, and the uncanny, exploring identity, memory, and spirit within the African Diaspora. Inspired by the Ifa tradition, where Òrun is the realm of ancestors—a place of memory, wisdom, and belonging—Suriel’s work engages with magical realities rooted in a decolonial past to enrich Afro- Caribbean identities. Through storytelling and a mythical lens, he reveals the interconnectedness of all beings and the unseen forces that shape our existence.
Photo credits
- © Lisandro Suriel
Artist Lisandro Suriel's website
Future Design
Future Design
- Location: Japan and worldwide
- Established: early 2010s
- Project leader: Tatsuyoshi Saijo
- Custodian: Future Design Research Center, Kyoto University of Advanced Science
Future Design Councils involve asking people to wear ceremonial robes that place them in the shoes of future generations when weighing the pros and cons of policies. Led by the economist Tatsuyoshi Saijo of the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto, this simple ritual has been shown to change how people think, fostering greater care and concern for future generations. Saijo describes such acts of temporal empathy as “futurability”. “A person exhibits futurability when she or he experiences an increase in happiness as a result of deciding to, and taking action to, forgo current benefits to enrich future generations,” he writes.
Photo credits
- 1. © Reiichiro Ishii
- 2+3. © Tatsuyoshi Saijo, Yahaba FDWS
Long before humanity, these organisms thrived on Earth
Fungal Futures
- Location: Peru
- Established: 2024
- Artist: Melissa Ingaruca Moreno
“We are fungi. We transformed Earth once, converting rocks into soils, paving the way for our common evolution. We existed alongside you across your history, but for many years we were a forgotten kingdom. In a time of entangled crisis, we spread our mycelial roots to decompose broken imaginaries, to unleash fungal futures. As we eat, we decompose your urban waste. As we expand, we heal the soils and water. As we fruit, we offer you medicine, food and bioluminescent light. As we thrive in this world, we connect your beginnings, to the underground, to futures that belong to all species” (Melissa Ingaruca Moreno)
Fungi are one of the oldest living organisms on the planet. By learning from and working with fungi, we will find that it can become a great ally to achieve goals of nature-positive, circular and carbon neutral, and climate-resilient cities. The project “Fungal Futures” enables human-fungi collaboration physically and through mixed reality (MR) to create speculative futures of cities where all species can thrive.
Photo credits
- 1+2. © Melissa Ingaruca Moreno
- 3. © Kira Koch / Melissa Ingaruca Moreno
A poem carved into the streets to increase the number of Saturdays
The Letters of Utrecht (De Letters van Utrecht)
- Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Established: 2012
- Duration: As long as there are Saturdays
- Artist: Various
- Maintained by: Foundation Letters of Utrecht, with guilds of poets and stonemasons
In the town of Utrecht in the Netherlands, there is a poem being written into the streets, one new letter every Saturday.
Once a week, a stonemason carves a new letter, donated by residents, before it is embedded in the ground. Every few years, another poet continues the poem. Gradually, more and more people become invested in its continuation. The waiting list is long: many want to contribute to something that outlasts us. It is a monument to our responsibility towards future generations. For as long as there are Saturdays, the poem will continue.
Photo credits
- 1+2. © Dick Sijtsma
- 3. © Ramses Singeling - Pergamijn
more information (English)/(Dutch)
For far future generations
Collective Time Capsule
- Location: Created by attendees of the UN Summit of the Future Established: September 2024
- Artist: Angelina Kumar
- Archiving Location: Deep in a saltmine in Hallstatt/Austria
- Established: Memory of Mankind established in 2012
- Artist (Memory of Mankind): Martin Kunze
The post box and postcards next to the poster invited visitors of the exhibition to write what they would like to last or what they want to leave behind for future generations. Two postcards with these questions were provided.
Helpful replies shall become part of the Memory of Mankind Project. Text on the postcards will be archived on ceramic tablets and stored deep in the oldest salt mine to be found and read hundreds of thousand years into the future.
They will also be placed on a website to encourage wider reflection and to make it more likely that there will be a long future. In a long future there should be someone who is aware. Someone who can understand what you wrote and can answer these questions for their future generations.
Photo credits
- 1. © Angelina Kumar & Hanneke Verheijke
- 2+3. © Martin Kunze
Artist Angelina Kumar's website and Martin Kunze's Memory of Mankind
Reception 21 September 2024
The co-facilitators of the UN Declaration on Future Generations invited to an opening reception of the exhibit Saturday, September 21st, 2024. See the Dutch representatives Instagram feed and photos below.
Michael Munkers' remarks
Art at work for the future!
The ten-thousand-year-old handprints in Argentina show our common humanity, and humanity enduring across time. Our ancestors have done what they could. Now it is our turn. The postbox at the other end of the wall invites you to write what you want to leave behind. Your answer will be stored for a million years. You can take inspiration from the projects in between and put on a Future Design Jacket that puts one into the shoes of an imaginary future person.
We take future generations for granted. And often at the same time expect an end of the world. Neither is inevitable from human perspective. For a long future we humans need to find ways to survive our progress. We will do that together - or not at all.
Like human rights, future generations is a big idea. We all want future generations to exist. That can bring us together. But caring for those who do not yet exist is difficult. Institutions can help us, and also art.
This exhibit was created by people from twenty-three countries. When the implementation of the UN Declaration on Future Generation is revisited in 2028, the UN will hopefully again bring artists from many more countries to these halls and ask them to help humanity find ways to survive progress.
The long-term art project in Utrecht exists to benefit future people. One stone with a letter is added to a poem in the street every Saturday. For as long as there are Saturdays.
A Special Envoy for Future Generations might one day get a replica letter and be asked to ensure the poem continues by helping to increase the number of Saturdays. Even if that also increases the number of Mondays.