ART AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. For the ten arts organisations making up the Imagine 2020 – Art and Climate Change network, 2020 is a realistic date to work towards for making changes necessary to stabilise the climate and secure a sustainable future.

“Artists of every kind have one overriding moral duty, which is to do their work as well as possible. But since that work partly consists of responding to what the world itself is up to, it would be strange if the best work being produced didn’t take some account, in some way, of what’s happening to our climate. Art is not only about beauty: sometimes it has to warn.” Philip Pullman, novelist

What role can the cultural sector play in the necessary transition process, to drastically reduce carbon emissions, to mitigate climate change and increase resilience to the effects of peak oil? Artists traditionally confront issues of such societal importance head on and often act as a catalyst for societal change. Art, as Philip Pullman puts it, is about beauty, but sometimes it has to warn.

Can it do both? And more?
These are questions for the Imagine 2020 network members. We share a sense of responsibility to rise to the challenge and want to use our passion, expertise, and connections within the art world and beyond to engage the European cultural sector and use its creative potential to raise awareness, involving the general public both as audience and as participants.

Art should provide a physical and imaginary space where people can take a step back, away from the corporate, the commercial and the educational, to exchange and engage with each other. It can address and involve more targeted audiences, such as young people, in playful yet serious ways. And above all it can create a positive energy and momentum for change through a sense of common purpose and hope.

The Imagine 2020 network will also research new ways of producing and presenting exciting artworks with minimal environmental impact, and share its learning in order to get the European cultural sector as a whole to include climate change concerns in their everyday working practice.

partners

  • Kaaitheater, Brussels, Belgium as the project leader
  • Artsadmin, London, Uk
  • Bunker, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Domino, Zagreb, Croatia
  • Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany
  • Le Quai, Angers, France
  • LIFT, London, UK
  • New Theatre Institute of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
  • Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • Transforma, Torres Vedras, Portugal

ACTIVITIES: ART AND CLIMATE CHANGE

MLADI LEVI festival 2010

  • Tanja Lažetić: MIGRANTS
  • Ackroyd&Harvey: ON THE FIELD
  • Beton Ltd.: SO FAR AWAY introduction to ego-logy

DRUGAJANJE festival 2010

  • prostoRož: OUR BACKYARD, workshop
  • Marko Vezovišek, Jure Ivanušič: CREATIN ECO ANTHEM, workshop

OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTIC PROJECTS

Festival MLADI LEVI 2011

  • Holz
  • The honey walk

DRUGAJANJE festival 2011

  • What kind of emissions do we leave behind, workshop
  • Beton Ltd.: SO FAR AWAY introduction to ego-logy

MLADIBOR

  • Betontanc & The Original Tempo: AUDITION FOR LIFE

Discussion Evenings: AND WHAT DO OTHERS HAVE TO SAY?

  • The Future of Europe, conference in the frame of the Subversive festival, 15th-19th May 2012
  • Art and the City, 15th October 2012
  • Contemporary Art and Education, 14th November 2012
  • The Role of Artist in Space, conversation with members of Beton Ltd., 4th December 2012
  • Representative Democracy in the Light of the Current Political Situation, 13th February 2013
  • New Fronts of Feminism, 8th March 2013
  • Focus: Asia, 22nd April 2013
  • The Utopia of Democracy, Subversive forum, live-stream, 12th-17th May 2013
  • Double game, 23th May 2013
  • The Audience Council, 5th July 2013
  • The Workers and Punks’ University: SOCIALISM, every Thursday 2013/2014
  • Uncomfortable Discussion “Generational apartheid”, 27th November 2013
  • All Together Now, 28th January
  • International Forum Still Ready to Change?, 23rd-25th May 2014
  • The Audience Council #2, 15th June 2014

Katarina Stegnar: DOUBLE GAME

Leja Jurišić, Teja Reba: THE SECOND FREEDOM

DRUGAJANJE festival 2013

  • From Seed to Seed, sustainable gardening workshop
  • International Forum STILL READY TO CHANGE?
  • Betontanc: TRACK OF THE WORLD

Festival MLADI LEVI 2014

  • Kate McIntosh: WORKTABLE, interactive installation
  • Betontanc: TRACK OF THE WORLD
  • Katarina Stegnar: DOUBLE GAME