The Global Co-commission
An initiative by Alserkal Advisory
The Global Co-commission prototypes and documents principles of responsible commissioning of public art.
From its position as a deeply rooted but globally reaching cultural actor, Alserkal Advisory conceptualized the Global Co-commission as an initiative that foregrounds subaltern community knowledge in public art that addresses shared global challenges.
In partnership with the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN), the Global Co-commission spans three cultural districts across three continents. They are: Alserkal Avenue, Dubai (UAE), Victoria Yards, Johannesburg (South Africa), and Kingston Creative, Kingston (Jamaica).
In developing an initiative focused on contextualising the global climate crisis and driving collective action, the Global Co-commission is supported by UAP — Urban Art Project, whose proprietary tools will help measure the impact of public art not only by providing a framework to audit the project’s CO2 emissions, but also by tracking and reporting on the societal impact and afterlife of the three commissions in each of the participating districts.
Two tools developed by UAP* – Artwork Ingredient List and Public Art 360 – constitute a baseline to quantify what responsible commissioning could begin to look like in the 21st century. The former calculates the carbon footprint of each commission in order to provide data about the environmental impact of the artworks while the latter will quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the social, cultural, and economic impacts of the installations, holistically measuring the effect the artwork has on communities and its surroundings over an extended period. For this first iteration of the Global Co-commission, UAP is working with research partners Griffith University and Future Normal, who will be instrumental to customising and analysing Public Art 360 while ensuring academic rigour.
