Climate activists protest Downing art exhibition

Cambridge Climate Justice (CCJ) and the Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists (ORCA) have publicly criticised Downing College’s recent art exhibition, Magma Rising, for its “dangerous” sponsorship.

The exhibition, which lasted from 26 February to 22 April, was sponsored by Güralp Systems: a company which provides equipment that measures seismic activity and is “well suited for early exploration of oil and gas reserves”.

A small group of environmental activists demonstrated against the sponsorship at the closing party of the exhibition, on Earth Day (22/04). They held placards and handed out leaflets outlining the “dangerous” relationship between the University and “climate wrecking industries”.

In a joint infographic posted to their Instagram pages, ORCA and CCJ claimed: “Sponsorships like the one Magma Rising accepted from Güralp lend fossil fuel industries the social licence they need to operate as normal.”

They also argued that the involvement of art with the fossil fuel industry “perpetuates environmental and social injustice”.

One activist’s placard claimed that companies such as Güralp “use University events to greenwash their businesses”. The environmental groups have alleged that this is “one example” of the University’s deeper entanglement with the fossil fuel industry.

The exhibition, which was “inspired by scientific research on Icelandic volcanoes by scientists from Downing College and across the University of Cambridge,” sought to showcase a “unique combination of science and the visual arts”. In addition to artwork, scientific data and samples were on display, “including activity recorded by Güralp instrumentation deployed in Iceland”.

The company’s website states that their “solutions” are used “to protect people and the environment”.

The activists stated that “they have no issue with magma itself” but are advocating for the “disentanglement of the University from the fossil fuel industry”. In a video posted to both environmental groups’ social media accounts, activists said that, though the exhibition itself was “probably very beautiful,” it was utilised by Güralp to “greenwash and artwash their destructive activities”.

“The sponsorship exemplifies the [University’s] complicity in fossil fuel extraction,” one activist said.

In 2019, Güralp entered into a £2 million Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) following accusations that it bribed foreign officials to buy its technology. A DPA allows the prosecution of an entity charged with a criminal offence to be suspended, providing that the company agrees to meet a number of conditions.

The terms of this agreement were in November 2024 found to have been breached. The SFO subsequently requested a Crown Court hearing, which has not yet taken place.

A spokesperson for Güralp told Varsity: “Whilst we fully support the right to campaign on matters relating to climate change, the characterisation of our company by the campaigners doesn’t match the reality of our business model. We are a small business employing a staff of around 100 to design and build broadband seismic monitoring instrumentation primarily for academic research and infrastructure monitoring in seismically active countries – more than 95% of our revenue.”

They added: “Whilst these sensitive instruments could be used for oil and gas exploration, in practice, the oil and gas sector, almost without exception, utilises less sensitive and cheaper forms of instrumentation such as geophone and mems-based technologies for this purpose. We don’t supply products of this type, however in recent years there has been an increasing level of interest in using instrumentation like ours to create alerting systems to ensure safe working processes and meet government environmental regulations.”

Downing College and the University were contacted for comment.