Artist
16NSt Curatorial Collective and Itinerant Gallery is run by Curators/co-Directors Aga Paulina Młyńczak and Nell Cardozo with Curator Rappleye. We foster both contemporary curatorial and art practices. The collective runs projects collaboratively managing a network of co-dependencies between artists, communities and the environment in Glasgow. We follow in the footsteps of Environmental Art and hope to develop it further with a series off place-based, community-led, public-site commissions. ‘Riverside Topographies’ is the first project of that kind led by curator Młyńczak in collaboration with the artist Eleni Wittbrodt.
Vignette 1: Skyline vs Ground Level. These are two views from Glasgow Tower located in Pacific Quay taken on 10th June 2024. The left-hand view, presents the Govan Graving Docks (GGD) the subject of our curatorial and artistic research and development project. Public access has been restricted for several years, leaving residents to appreciate the area only from afar. Currently the community awaits the council’s decision on a proposed residential development along the River Clyde’s bank, which is feared to impact the future accessibility and use of this beloved site, which is also a flood plain. The right-hand view faces east, showing the skyline along Pacific Quay. The architecture in this area, while architecturally significant and representative of modern developments, also highlights a critical issue: the restricted waterfront access for most residents. This obstruction of public access to the riverfront has been a key factor prompting our research inquiry.
Vignette 2: Historical Relationship
On 13th of June 2024, we were granted access to the fenced-off area of Govan Graving Docks by Marine Project Scotland, who provided a tour of the Queen Mary—an old Clyde steamer from 1933 currently being restored on-site. It has been decades since the docks were last used for ship repair, and the appropriate permissions are still pending for the re-launching of Dock no 2 as a commercial ship repair site, we were told.
The director of Marine Project Scotland shared his personal connection to the docks. His father was a boat builder, and he himself is an experienced engineer who witnessed the decline of the Scottish shipbuilding industry, leading to work placements across many continents. His dream is to restore and reopen Dock No. 2 for industrial use indefinitely.
Vignette 3: Ecology
Undisturbed from human activity, a wide and diverse range of plants, insects, and animals have populated the Docks. During our visit, we were able to spontaneously identify dozens of different flowers, grasses and shrubs, including wild orchids and strawberries. The area has proven to be particularly habitable for a variety of rare bird species, making it an important site for ornithological observation and research. Field ornithologist Paul Baker from Avian Ecology is currently conducting research on-site, with housing stations for rare birds set up on the east-facing edge of Docks 1 and 2.
We learned that the current flora and fauna results from a slow recovery and selective planting by Blue Green Glasgow, following a drastic vegetation cutback during a ‘deep cleaning’ project at the Docks in 2014. Seeing the unique ecological richness of the site, benefitting from remaining mostly untouched, opens up questions about ecological responsibilities that must be considered in any future development plans.
Vignette 4: Community Mapping
It’s been pointed out to us that Govan Graving Docks, while still accessible, were primarily used by local teenagers–a group wildly demonised and sometimes cut off from many activities and services available to their younger peers. We aim to engage these young people by inviting them to join the Govan Camera Club, where they can explore photographic self-expression and document their neighbourhood’s topographies during this time of pivotal changes, such as the opening of the Partick-Govan Bridge and the disputes around the GGD.
We hope to provide a space for the participants to reflect on the architectures and intimacies of riverside living in Govan. Our goal is to bring together young people from different communities, including the New Scots, who form a significant part of Govan’s population.
Our team of four is dedicated to developing a climate-conscious, community-led curatorial practice that will contribute to the creation of a public-site commissioning toolkit. Along our research journey, we have encountered many inspirational artists, architectural projects, and community initiatives in Govan and at the Docks. We hope to catalogue these and share them as a directory in the following phases of the project ending in 2028.
