“What, if anything, is sacred?”
Join us for a launch event for SANCTUM, the twelfth Dark Mountain book. Dougald Hine and Sara Jolena Wolcott will read from their contributions to this special issue.
As with all issues of Dark Mountain, this book contains a multitude of voices, images and words, in this case gathered around the theme of “the sacred” and the role that this might play in how we navigate times of loss and uncertainty.This time around, we’ve experimented with many aspects of the shape of a Dark Mountain book. Out of hundreds of proposals, twelve were chosen and the editors worked closely with authors to develop the final essays. Meanwhile, Thomas Keyes brought together a gang of artists – part monastic scriptorium, part graffititeam – to bring flow and colour to the words of the book, creating a series of incipit pages, painted on parchment which Thomas made from the skins of roadkill deer. And Sylvia V. Linsteadt and Rima Staines took over the margins of the book, summoning the voice of the Sybil of Cumae to create a parallel text, part commentary, part narrative – which culminates in a thirteenth piece, claiming the final word.
Copies of the book will be on sale on the night – and refreshments will be provided.
Dougald Hine, co-founder and managing editor of Dark Mountain.
Time: Thursday, November 2nd, 18.30-20.00
Place: Kollaboratoriet Uppsala (Östra Ågatan 19, Uppsala)
This event is co-hosted by the Dark Mountain Project and CEMUS.
Sara Jolena Wolcott
THE DARK MOUNTAIN PROJECT
The machine is stuttering and the engineers are in panic. They are wondering if perhaps they do not understand it as well as they imagined. They are wondering whether they are controlling it at all or whether, perhaps, it is controlling them.
The Dark Mountain Project is a network of writers, artists and thinkers who have stopped believing the stories our civilisation tells itself. We see that the world is entering an age of ecological collapse, material contraction and social and political unravelling, and we want our cultural responses to reflect this reality rather than denying it.
The Project grew out of a feeling that contemporary literature and art were failing to respond honestly or adequately to the scale of our entwined ecological, economic and social crises. We believe that writing and art have a crucial role to play in coming to terms with this reality, and in questioning the foundations of the world in which we find ourselves.