Another future is possible, but not without indigenous wisdom. Stewardship of natural ecosystems by Indigenous Peoples poses a systemic relevance for global sustainability efforts, as Indigenous communities have been shown to protect 80% of the planet’s biodiversity.

The Yawanawa communities of Aldeia Sagrada and Nova Esperança from the Brazilian Amazon joined forces with new media artist Refik Anadol, the impact investment initiative Impact One, and a new platform for experimentation, Scorpios Encounters. The cross-industry collaboration maps a new model dedicated to the establishment of more holistic and equitable pathways to environmental sustainability. With the debut of their first-of-its-kind artwork series, the partners mark the onset of a long-term collaboration. The goal is to develop regenerative business models using blockchain technology to support indigenous communities’ stewardship of their lands, and by extension, the protection of some of our planet's most vital ecosystems.

The co-created artwork series between Refik Anadol and the Yawanawa community also creates a dynamic bond and sense of connection between the global Scorpios and indigenous Yawanawa communities. The project is part of Impact One’s Possible Futures programme, a portfolio of initiatives that seek to give shape to nature-positive built environments and symbiotic modes of living globally. The historical collaboration will be unveiled on 13 July with the presentation of an artwork series by Refik Anadol, co-created with the Yawanawa community, as a representation of Yawanawa culture and the relationship of mutual aid with the forest that it fosters.

The series comprises a data sculpture triptych and a limited 1,000-piece Genesis NFT collection, which will be minted and dropped during the Scorpios Encounters program. Refik Anadol, the Yawanawa chiefs Nixiwaka and Isku Kua will be in Scorpios Mykonos on 13 and 14 July. The launch will be accompanied by a special programme comprising informative, cultural, and musical events. Proceeds of the artwork collection sales will go directly to the Yawanawa community. The funds will be used by the Yawanawa chiefs to support long-term initiatives for the protection of their lands and cultural heritage. Activities funded by the sale include the hosting of a historical convening amongst Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon taking place in the Yawanawa Sacred Village in 2024.

The project was initiated as part of Possible Futures: a multi-year program supporting initiatives and projects that are developing and/or promoting specific, evidence-based and scalable solutions to improve the conditions of life on our planet. When applying 'universal law', most current activities and approaches applied by humans lead us towards impossible futures. An exception are the indigenous communities, who, based on current data, have the biggest single impact in the protection of our last remaining original environmental habitats. A central goal of the programme is to preserve their practices and provide the funds and means to empower their communities and guardianship of their territories.

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About the Artwork

The multi-layered artwork by Refik Anadol was co-created with the Yawanawa community, and commissioned by Impact One, as a reflection of Yawanawa cultural and natural heritage that chief Biraci Nixiwaka Brasil has dedicated his life to re-establishing. Nixiwaka led the movement of reclamation of his community’s ancestral lands in the 1980s, and succeeded in officially demarcating the Indigenous Land of Rio Gregório in 1991, making the Yawanawa the first indigenous people to obtain the official rights to their lands in the state of Acre.

The artwork incorporates data from Yawanawa songs and visual artworks by the community members, in conjunction with natural data, to showcase the relationship that the community nourishes towards its natural environment. Live weather data from Aldeia Sagrada, the most remote Yawanawa village, will feed into the artwork’s NFTs, to create a dynamically evolving representation of that connection, rendered in Refik Anadol’s creative practice. The multi-sensory journey builds on the community’s cultural memory and the forest ambient data, to immerse viewers into a fractalized, representation of a part of Earth’s most vital ecosystem and its custodians, informed by environmental and climatological data.

The artist Refik Anadol and Impact One share a dedication to creating ground-breaking experiences geared towards advancing human and environmental health. Their first collaboration was unveiled a year ago, with the presentation of the artwork Sense of Healing, commissioned by Impact One as a representation of the process of healing in mental health patients. The work was premiered in July 2022 and went on to break the artist’s record with a €1.7 million sale at the Unicef Summer Gala auction in Capri. For more information on the project, please contact press@impact.one.

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Yawanawa Community
With a population of over 1,200 the Yawanawa people live in villages nestled along the banks of the Gregório river in the Brazilian state of Acre, where they are guardians of thousands of acres of rainforest. Their history and culture are rich and diverse, with a deep connection to the natural world through their ancestral wisdom, plant medicine and environmental stewardship. The Yawanawá people's traditional way of life is based on subsistence agriculture, hunting and fishing, and an exceptional musical culture. Their way of life and deep cultural connection to the forest has served as an inspiration for the director and cast of the Hollywood movie Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).

The Yawanawa community is represented in this project by chiefs Biraci Nixiwaka Brasil, Putanny Yawanawa and Isku Kua Biraci Brasil Junior, leaders of the villages of Aldeia Sagrada and Nova Esperança.

Refik Anadol
Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is an internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where he owns and operates Refik Anadol Studio and RAS LAB, the Studio’s research practice centered around discovering and developing trailblazing approaches to data narratives. Anadol is also teaching at UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts from which he obtained his Master of Fine Arts. Residing at the crossroads of art, science, and technology, Anadol’s site-specific three-dimensional data sculptures and paintings, live audio/visual performances, and immersive installations take varied virtual and physical forms. Entire buildings come to life, floors, walls, and ceilings disappear into infinity, breathtaking aesthetics take shape from large swaths of data, and what was once invisible to the human eye becomes visible, offering the audience a new perspective on, and narrative of their worlds.

Impact One
Impact One is an impact investment initiative dedicated to restoring a balance between nature and urban life. To create nature-positive economies, Impact One is establishing a new asset class of infrastructure that places interconnected human and environmental wellbeing at its core, under the name of Wellbeing Infrastructure. Through evidence-based research and full life-cycle impact assessments, Impact One introduces scalable solutions for developing social and economic models that reintegrate nature into cities and creates visible and measurable positive impact on environmental and societal health. Impact One launched the Possible Futuresprogramme, which looks into concepts to redesign the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems through existing evidence-based and scalable solutions.

Possible Futures
Launched officially during COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in November 2022, Possible Futures supports the indigenous lands reclamation movement to offer indigenous nations the means to self-govern their territories. The opening event, hosted in partnership with the New York Times and co-curated with Nina Gualinga of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, focused on discussions on the protection of culture, biodiversity and land in the Amazon region, featuring the present Minister of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil Sonja Guajajara, together with representatives of the Yawanawa, Xakriabá, Witoto, Terena, Kichwa, Ushigua and Ponca People.

Scorpios
Scorpios emerged as a creative gathering place on a sun-drenched peninsula of Mykonos in 2015, founded by Thomas Heyne and Mario Hertel, two nightlife impresarios from southern Germany. As a return to the bohemian spirit of this windswept Cycladic island, this open-air enclave ushered in a cultural shift from all-night partying to all-day ease, through ceremonial rituals, inspiring events, and a festival atmosphere. Scorpios sets the standard for a new kind of beach experience that nurtures community and collaboration — an alternative to mainstream entertainment.

In 2019, Scorpios joined the Soho House & Co family. As a platform for new ideas, synergies and artistic experimentation, Scorpios is a natural fit for Soho House & Co’s vibrant, diverse and global group of members. Built around a love of food, music, and design, both brands reflect a strong sense of place and a relaxed spirit of radical togetherness. Today, the Scorpios culture is designed to nourish all the senses, expand the mind, and welcome our eclectic, free-spirited, creative community on an uncharted journey to find their own rhythm.

Encounters
Scorpios’ platform for cultural experimentation, Encounters, will launch in Mykonos with a summer art program (13 July – 3 September). This inaugural edition of Encounters, titled In Resonance, will bring together notable contemporary artists and musicians to engage with the public around digital art. Highlights include a series of art installations, live performances, and bespoke music compositions, as well as exclusive opportunities to collect digital artwork.

The summer-long exploratory program arises out of curiosity about the creative interplay between contemporary art and music. Just as the brand has long championed new and emerging musicians at its vibrant agora on Mykonos with the evolution of the Scorpios sound, they are now exploring contemporary art. With this diverse cultural exchange, Scorpios continues to embrace a spirit of collaboration between artists and audiences, giving them an arena in which to experiment and chart new creative territory.

Scorpios Collect
Scorpios Collect is a digital art initiative by Kreation Technologies, in partnership with Scorpios. Scorpios, with its flagship location in Mykonos, is a world-renowned holistic beach club and electronic music institution attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Additional partner in this project is Binance, who provides support along sales platforms, collectors and international engagement for the project. Scorpios Collect will market the Refik Anadol x Yawanawa Possible Futures artwork.