In November 2022, Hussein Mitha presented a discussion entitled "Europe is a garden": the border and ecological crisis. The talk took as its starting point a speech given by an EU foreign affairs chief who described Europe as a garden and the rest of the world as a jungle, articulating a logic of how western elites perceive and shape the geography of the climate crisis, justifying genocide as easily as demarcating and maintaining a garden. Through their talk, Hussein Mitha explored the concept of paradise, (paradise for whom?) amid devastation and ecological crises in the Global South and a strengthening of racist border regimes across the Global North.

Hussein Mitha is a writer and artist living in Glasgow. Their work often deals with racial capitalism, anti-imperialism and contemporary art. In their free time they like to walk, study literature, make floral paintings and do vegetal doodlings.

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This event was hosted by Emma Lewis-Jones, an artist working in the realm of performance-making whose work draws on feminism, sexuality, climate justice, grief and the border crisis. Emma graduated from MLitt Fine Art Practice at GSA in 2022.

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Image: 'The gates of paradise are barred to us’, 2nd November 2021, Hussein Mitha, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, photograph taken with Alaya Ang