fresh perspectives/4

www.ietm.org art for the planet’sArts and Environment sake

picture: ‘The drowned mermaid’, Stig (from Art Not Oil coalition)

Hannah Van Den Bergh November 2015

in partnership with

ISBN: 978-2-9601106-8-5

IETM is supported by:

This publication is distributed free of charge and follows the Creative The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an Commons agreement Attribu- endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission tion-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives cannot be held responsi­ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. (CC BY-NC-ND) fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

Art for the Planet’s Sake

Fresh Perspectives on Arts and Environment by Hannah Van Den Bergh

Published by IETM - International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, Brussels

In partnership with COAL - Art et développement durable

November 2015

Editing and general coordination: Marie Le Sourd (On the Move), Elena Di Federico (IETM)

Graphic layout: Elena Di Federico (IETM) on a template by JosWorld

This publication is distributed free of charge and follows the Creative Commons agreement Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND). You are free to reuse and share this publication or parts of it as long as you mention the original source.

This publication should be mentioned as follows:

H. Van Den Bergh, “Art for the Planet’s Sake. Fresh Perspectives on Arts and Environment”, IETM, Brussels, November 2015. Link: https:// www.ietm.org/en/publications

For further information please contact [email protected]

The publishers have made every effort to secure permission to reproduce pictures protected by copyright. IETM will be pleased to make good any omissions brought to their attention in future editions of this publication.

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org Table of contents

About 3 01. introduction 5 02. sustainable people 7 Stig, ‘Drowned Mermaid’ (from the Art not Oil Coalition)

Changing the narrative 7 Sustaining Creativity: Julie’s Bicycle 11 A little less conversation, a little more action 12 COP21: The arts and civil society 04. respond 15 guest contributions 23 Striving for Meaningful Impact - 05. Chantal Bilodeau 23 conclusions 35 03. Community and Art as a Way Towards Ecological Sustainability - it’s not easy being Marco Kusumawijaya 25 On Culture, the Environment and green 17 06. Sustainable Development - Mike Van Graan 27 resources 36 Big Oil, Big Art, Big Question 17 Prefiguring Sustainability: Green fatigue 18 Response-Ability and Spaces of Possibility - Art in the Cloud 21 Sacha Kagan 29 Culture Shift 22 The S-word - Yasmine Ostendorf 33

2

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org About IETM is a dynamic, engaged and forward-looking network for the performing arts sector as Almost 125 years ago, the Swedish chem- This edition of Fresh Perspectives was well as a resource and reference point for ist Svante Arrhenius drew attention to the written by Hannah Van Den Bergh and innovative contemporary art. IETM con- potential global impact of use. At coordinated by Marie Le Sourd, Secretary sists of over 550 subscribing professional least 25 years ago we started experiencing General of On The Move. Special contri- performing arts organisations from more the impacts of a dramatic rise in global tem- butions were commissioned from Sacha than 50 countries. They are engaged in peratures, due to human activities. While Kagan, Marco Kusumawidjaya, Mike van innovative, contemporary performing arts scientific calculations continue to predict Graan, Chantal Bilodeau and Yasmine work and are committed to cross-border the catastrophic consequences another Ostendorf. exchange and collaboration. 1°C temperature rise will have on our eco- system, world leaders are yet to agree on a For this publication we wish to thank all course of global action to drastically reduce those who replied to our call for contribu- emissions. Time is running out. tions, and in particular: COAL Can art pretend to save the planet? No. And Flyer roots (TR), Citron Jaune (FR), it doesn’t. But if we believe in the power of European Capital of Culture Leeuwarden- The Coalition for Art and Sustainable art as a purely humanistic act, enriching Fryslân 2018 (NL), Centre Scientifique Development, was founded by contem- people with non-materialistic values, art is et Technique du Bâtiment(CSTB) and porary art, sustainable development and able to tap into a different instinct, ratio- Bellastock (FR), Anna Macdonald UK), research professionals in France in 2008. nale and emotion than political rhetoric, UFA (DE), Birth (RO/FI/HU/UG), Solar Trailblazing and cross-cutting, COAL is corporate sales-patter or even scientific Solidarity International (BE), Greentrack working to promote a new generation data. Gent (BE), La nourrice (FR), Zelenkovac of artists focusing on environmental and Ekološki Pokret (BA), Rimini Protokoll societal issues, in partnership with cultural In this edition of Fresh Perspectives IETM (DE), Doxandem Squad (SN), Francis spaces, NGOs, scientists and the business collaborates with leading arts and envi- Hahton (ES), Sari Palmgren (FI), Catherine world. In a multidisciplinary and innovative ronment organisation COAL to present Young (SG/PH), Shaun Gladwell (AU), spirit, COAL mobilises artists and cultural contemporary arts models and practices Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix- operators on social and environmental that tackle environmental issues and en-Provence (FR), SomeBody - Galaad Le issues and supports the creation of art- advocate change – issues that should be Goaster & Marjorie Burger-Chassignet works, creating awareness and implement- the shared responsibility of all humankind. (FR), Thessaloniki Concert Hall (GR), ing concrete solutions through exhibitions, Increasingly artists and arts organisations Charbel Samuel Aoun (LB/AM), Leaves of events, the COAL Prize Art Environment, dedicate their talent to raise awareness grass (FR), Chantal Latour (FR), Corinne and intelligent resources like through the of the environment, scrutinize their own Forsans (FR), Pia Galvez (ES), Chantal unique platform ressource0.com. carbon footprints and encourage action in Bilodeau (US/CA), CirkVOST (FR), Arts civil society. Time is running out. We need House (UK/AU), ASEF - Asia-Europe action to reinvent our world, and the arts Foundation, Lonesome Goerge Production help us imagine how. (USA), Mona Nicole Sfeir (CH), Creative Carbon Scotland (UK), Julie’s Bicycle (UK) hannah van den bergh Hannah Van Den Bergh is a writer and researcher based in the UK, working on projects exploring arts and environment, cultural mobility and site-specific perfor- mance. Hannah has worked for the Arts Council of Wales, the BBC and advises performing arts companies across the UK.

3

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

Coordinator of this publication marco kusumawijaya sacha kagan

Marco Kusumawijaya is a practitioner, Sacha Kagan is Research associate at activist and thinker in the fields of architec- the Leuphana University Lueneburg, marie le sourd ture, environment, arts, cultural heritage, ISCO (Institute of Sociology and Cultural urban planning and development with Organization – ISKO in German). Among Marie Le Sourd is the Secretary General of more than 20 years of intensive experi- other engagements, Sacha Kagan is the On the Move, the European cultural mobil- ences, orienting his practice and thinking Chair of Research Network 2: Sociology ity information network. This organisation towards sustainable urbanism and archi- of the Arts, at the European Sociological provides information about cultural mobil- tecture. Trained as an architect, he has Association (ESA) for the period 2015- ity opportunities and funding in Europe worked as architectural designer, urban 2017; he is Founding Coordinator of and worldwide, and tackles various issues designer and planner, researcher and con- Cultura21 International – ‘Cultural related to cultural mobility, including envi- sultant on urban management and gover- Fieldworks for Sustainability’, a network ronmental ones. From 2006 to 2011 Marie nance. He has worked with private sec- gathering artists, scientists and other cul- was Director of the French Cultural Centre tors, governments, international and local tural practitioners engaged for cultures of in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) after managing NGO’s, international agencies such as the sustainability; and he is a founding mem- the Cultural Exchange Department of the WWF, the British Council, the World Bank ber of Cultura21 in Germany (Institut Asia-Europe Foundation-ASEF (Singapore) and UNDP/UN-HABITAT. Community Cultura21 e.V.). His my main research and for seven years. engagement, community-based approach, action area is the transdisciplinary field of participatory democracy in urban develop- ‘arts and (un-)sustainability’. Some of his ment and planning are always an important other areas of work and interest include emphasis in his approach. His special inter- the sociology of arts and culture, cultural ests include the urban study of Jakarta, economics, dance studies, documen- Guest contributors city and arts, and social changes towards tary film, sustainability and sustainable sustainability. development. chantal bilodeau Chantal Bilodeau is a New York-based mike van graan yasmine ostendorf playwright and translator originally from Montreal. She is the Artistic Director of Mike van Graan is the Executive Director of Yasmine Ostendorf is a cultural policy The Arctic Cycle – an organization cre- the African Arts Institute and is the former researcher who has founded the Green ated to support the writing, development Secretary General of the Arterial Network, Art Lab Alliance (GALA); a knowledge and production of eight plays that examine a continent-wide network engaged in the alliance of cultural organisations engag- the impact of on the eight African creative sector. He currently ing with environmental issues. She is cur- countries of the Arctic – and the founder serves as a UNESCO Technical Expert rently doing research across Asia mapping of the international network Artists And on the Convention on the Protection and ‘Creative Responses to Sustainability’ on Climate Change. Recent awards include the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural behalf of ASEF - Asia-Europe Foundation. Woodward International Playwriting Prize Expressions. One of South Africa’s most as well as First Prize in the Earth Matters on prolific leading playwrights, Mike van Stage Ecodrama Festival and the Uprising Graan has had a long-standing association National Playwriting Competition. She is with the performing arts. His plays include the recipient of a Jerome Travel & Study Die Generaal (The Generaal), winner of Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts the Fleur du Cap Best New Script Award Fellowship, two Compton Foundation 2008; Brothers in Blood, a Market Theatre grants, and a U.S. Department of State production that won the Naledi Theatre Federal Assistance Award. Award for Best New Play 2009, and Iago’s Last Dance which premiered on the Main Programme at the National Arts Festival and was nominated in the Fleur du Cap Best New Script category, 2009.

4

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

Climate change engulfs us. It is the unavoidable normality that consistently adds to Through IETM and COAL we have found the order of the everyday, leaving a lasting impression through natural disasters, rising artists and organisations eager to evoke water levels, crop failure, biodiversity loss, and human conflict: a process of continual change in the climate debate. This publi- attrition. Scientists inform us that our civilisation is nearing collapse, unless we imple- cation does not aim to provide a series of ment a radical change towards a low-carbon and low-resource economy. Art prepares answers, but illuminates work in practice us, not in calculations but in humanity. and experimentation in the arts and cul- tural sector. Because culture is the main voice of humanity, and ‘human develop- ment can only be effective if we explicitly The authoring organisations recognise that consider the integral value to the process ‘sustainability’ combines financial, social of culture and cultural factors such as mem- 01. and environmental resources, but places ory, creativity, diversity and knowledge’ – as environmental sustainability as the core outlined in the UCLG 2015 ‘Culture 21 – Introduction principle upon which social, financial and Actions’3. This is an outline of the role of arts cultural health is built. There is a need to in observing, understanding and critiquing Ecology is the new opiate of the masses. develop a common language and shared approaches, and proposing solutions to Slavoj Žižek consensus to translate this in practice: environmental sustainability. It began with how do we shift attitudes to embrace the a call for contributions by IETM and COAL Against the backdrop of COP21, the UN conservative principles of financial viability, on the theme, with 34 responses from the Climate Talks in Paris in December 2015, future proofing, resilience and adaptation sector. This work also draws on published – what has been described as the ‘most to secure minimal environmental impact? writing and reports that have opened and critical’ climate talks to date – we antici- And with the arts enjoying a surge of activ- challenged discussion about the role of the pate a radical revision of environmental ity through globalisation and cheap travel, sector, and which are provided as reference politics. Faced with conflicting ideologies, how do we weigh this against impact and texts for your further reading. Finally, spe- politics and approaches, can nature be the emissions? As Naomi Klein prophesised, cial contributions from researchers, artists, unifying policy? What we anticipate is, fun- ‘the solution to global warming is not to fix managers and activists enrich this publica- damentally, another opportunity to sit and the world, it is to fix ourselves’2. tion with an international perspective and talk. Global emissions have doubled since a political contextualisation. the first UN climate meeting in 1995, so rather than wait for action we turn to the 3 http://www.agenda21culture.net/images/a21c/4th-pilar/ arts. Our wealth of cultural idiosyncrasies 2 http://www.thischangeseverything.org zz_Culture4pillarSD_eng.pdf ‘influence lifestyles, individual behaviour, consumption patterns, values related to environmental stewardship, and our inter- action with the natural environment’, as defined by the UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda. Confronting ecological change with artis- tic response, from the arts and ecology centre in Germany ufaFabrik, to relatively new arts platforms like MELD in Greece who recognise that ‘a different kind of art is coming’.

At the heart of this debate is the pragma- tism of living against sustainable princi- ples. This must be Plan A, because there is no Plan B in terms of climate survival. The recent IFACCA/Julie’s Bicycle report, ‘The Arts and Environmental Sustainability’,1 gives a definition of (the often elusive principle of) ‘sustainability’ in relation to Picture from The Museum of Garbage (picture: Stefanie Kuhlmann, Judith Jung and the arts, and in anticipation of the post- Gabrielle Reeves) 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.

1 http://www.juliesbicycle.com/resources/ifacca-dart-report

5

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

This text has only sought to capture a In ‘Prefiguring Sustainability: Response- the greatest challenges facing humankind. snapshot of the activity being pioneered Ability and Spaces of Possibility’ Sacha The environment is undoubtedly one of by the arts and cultural sector. As our cli- Kagan (Germany) calls for a rethink of the most urgent. Understanding our role mate changes, so does our response, and sustainability that is holistic, encouraging and relationship to the planet – how we we anticipate a lot of change in the years ‘response-ability’ within local communities. approach and discuss the necessity of to come. change – can be the role of the artists. ‘The S-word’ by Yasmine Ostendorf (UK) Rather than being overwhelmed and dis- The text is structured into four main parts. reflects on how cultural differences change connected by statistical data, graphs and The first part on Sustainable People aims meanings when considering approaches projections, as valuable as they are, the to understand and embrace the role and to sustainability, focusing on arts practice arts community must have a part to play in power of artists and creators to be the in Korea, Singapore, Japan and the wider imagining the sustainable future we hear messengers of climate change, imagine the ASEAN region. communicated at the UN Climate Talks future, freely denounce and critique social in Paris and the numerous other interna- and economic systems that protect work- tional gatherings that punctuate the envi- ing practice at the cost of our environment. ronmental sustainability question. It is the As Ariane Koek, founder of Arts@CERN rich and meaningful experience art creates (the large hadron collider in Switzerland) that has the power to target the emotions captured in one sentence: ‘The arts touch of an audience, community and individuals, the parts that science alone cannot reach’. that is proven effective in communicating 02. scientific facts and phenomena. Generally The chapter It’s Not Easy Being Green SUSTAINABLE PEOPLE speaking, global inertia continues because starts from the assumption that sustaina- climate is complex and talking in quanti- ble practice must extend beyond a purely Artists and creators can be the messen- ties of the unimaginable. Change is nom- conceptual subject matter in art. It is vital gers of climate change, imagine the future, inal. The trend of UN conferences, Papal that the arts community sets an example by freely denounce and critique social and Encyclicals, Presidential speeches and working sustainably. economic systems that protect harmful celebrity tweets only serve to highlight our working practice, at the cost of our environ- inaction. Speculation around the long-term Following a chapter of Conclusions and a ment. We must stop perpetuating a norm behavioural change necessary to imple- set of Resources, the text ends with a set that sees artists and scientists at two ends ment mission statements and projections of Guest Contributions commissioned by of a spectrum, but encourage integration, such as the UN Sustainable Development international experts for this issue of Fresh collaboration and discussion as combined Goals is rife with criticism. Contrary to Perspectives. creative forces. Culture has a transforma- popular belief, the facts cannot speak for tive power on human development, making themselves. It is the plot lines, pictures In ‘Striving for Meaningful Impact’ Chantal the complex language of environmental and performances that trigger connec- Bilodeau (Canada) considers the effects research relevant to the needs, worries tion and change. Injecting the statistics of arts practice on the artist, the audience, and hedonism of a global people. Artists can with humanity is imperative in explaining the sector and the wider community, and be the mouth-piece, the microphone, pro- climate change: being able to understand approaches to measuring their impacts. voking behaviour change, connecting with the impact through visualisation and imag- humanity and at times – in activism, cam- ination. Marcus Brigstocke, a comedian In ‘Community and Art as a Way paigning against unethical practice. There is invited to join a recent Cape Farewell Towards Ecological Sustainability’ Marco a place for arts within the environment dis- Arctic expedition for artists concluded that Kusumawijaya (Indonesia) explains how cussion, and a hubbub of activity within the ‘the artistic community is not well placed we should approach connections between arts community that condemns, comments to deal with the urgency suggested by the artists and local communities, and the on and celebrates our natural environment, scientific case, because of the danger of role for development and change in social imagining the future. being seduced. We should be careful about microenvironments. being in love with the tragedy of melting ice Changing the narrative because it needs to translate into some- In ‘On Culture, the Environment and thing that makes sense of it’1. Furthermore, Sustainable Development’ Mike Van Graan Culture is at the top of this agenda the echoed response by Laurent Fabius, (South Africa) deconstructs the Sustainable Ban Ki-Moon on the 2015 Sustainable the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Development Goals and how generalised Development Goals and International Development, and the approaches to policy have been interpreted President of COP21, after his visit to the in African contexts. Preventing catastrophic climate change, Arctic Circle last year is evocative: ‘I have a limiting global warming beyond a further very lively memory of the horrifying noise

two degrees, and implementing the UN’s 1 http://conversations.e-flux.com/t/ Sustainable Development Goals are among why-climate-action-needs-the-arts/2270

6

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

and sight of huge ice blocks cracking and breaking away from the pack. The Arctic is indeed the gatekeeper of climate disorder: for years, this region has been sending us signals that we cannot neglect anymore’.

It is vital that artists are present in the global conversations on environment, so often weighed down in party politics and ideological orthodoxy, to commu- nicate empathy, pathos, wit, beauty and human error. Beyond blind panic, artists have the opportunity – and the power – to change the climate narrative. As a society we need to build the confi- dence to believe that a different, sustain- able way of living is possible.

While our path is fundamentally guided by the ongoing research of the scientific community, arguably steered by rational, ‘Luxo è lixo’ (Luxury is Trash’), project by Basurama in Brasil (picture: courtesy of practical knowledge, we also need per- Basurama). sonal, unique, aesthetic responses that engage the emotions that cause people to act. If art is to have a place in the envi- ronment paradigm, it must be to communi- cate, share, reflect, question and criticise. How can we transform personal responsi- web platforms, radically changed the nar- Without it, we are pre-disposed to continue bility into collective consensus? How can rative. It caused a mass outpouring of grief, in much the same manner: media report- we move from denouncing behaviours to expression and ultimately, action through ing fuelled by data, politicians preparing creating sustainable proposals1? donations, aid and housing. It was one pic- rousing speeches and incremental change ture, connected into human empathy, that sacrificed by corporate profits. As Yasmine What will evoke global action? triggered change. Ostendorf identifies in her attached essay ‘The S-word’, sustainability is becoming In the summer of 2015 the world witnessed In Tiananmen Square, the image of a man homogenous to a lifestyle choice that is one mass migration of an unprecedented and standing in front of four tanks, representing of expense and luxury. Art does not nec- unforeseen scale. In Europe, migration the disproportionate violence used against essarily offer an ethical or green solution, from Africa and the Middle East caused a peaceful protest. In Vietnam, the image of but it has a role in challenging perception. in many cases by displacement, persecu- a girl caught in a napalm attack, her clothes tion, and war, was thought in some discus- burnt off her skin. The graphic images of How can we imagine what more than two sions to stem from the rudimental effects Syrian victims tortured under the Assad degrees temperature increase means for of climate change: ongoing drought and regime, surfaced and exhibited at the UN the future? spoilt crops2. The picture of a three-year- Headquarters in New York. Most recently, old boy lying face down on the beach in we are heavy, shaken by savage attacks in How do we reconcile the ecological impact Greece, drowned crossing dangerous Paris and Beirut in November 2015, target- of affluent societies against those with waters, sparked international outcry over ing a music venue, restaurant, football sta- more basic needs? the human cost of the crisis and, in a mat- dium and open-air market. Overwhelmed ter of hours, shared on social media and by images of human despair we are united How can we understand the sheer volume in humanity. Far from becoming desensi- of man-made waste, floating plastic islands tised, our response is one of solidarity. and the wreckage of a tsunami? 1 Morin, E., Pistoletto, M. ‘Impliquons-nous’, Actes Sud: Paris, October 2015. Consider this locally: when a factory closes we are connected to the human impact of 2 ‘Drought is being implicated as a key instigator in the Syrian conflict… Observers, including UN experts estimated job losses, not the numbers or projections. that between 2 and 3 million of Syria’s 10 million rural inhabit- It is the emotional power and human con- ants were reduced to ‘extreme poverty‘’ (https://www.washing- tonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/09/09/ nection – that which we can understand, drought-and-syria-manmade-climate-change-or-just-climate/)

7

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

and so imagine the impact on our own fami- and convey personal experience and intervention that mobilises residents lies, friends and communities – that leaves a cultivate social progress. A new series to discuss perception of place and to lasting impression and the charge to cause of work, ‘10+10+10=1’, representing develop spaces that arouse feelings, us to act. 10 artists, 10 scholars, 10 films and experiences and emotions. FACT 1 planet is an attempt to navigate aims to capitalise and develop scien- As author Margaret Atwood wrote in the urgent and pervasive ecologi- tific concepts and principles sensitive post-apocalyptic bioengineering catastro- cal arena shadowed by a potentially to urban design, with the needs and phe ‘Oryx and Crake’, ‘When any civiliza- catastrophic ecosystem collapse. values of inhabitants at the root of tion is dust and ashes… art is all that’s left Pairing artists and scholars, MELD the project. Running ‘workshop walks’ over. Images, words, music. Imaginative will showcase ten new films and pro- FACT will create permanent, transient structures. Meaning – human meaning – is vide a springboard for the creation of and ephemeral acts highlighting the defined by them.’ Through giving stage to new artwork that will articulate the need for greener urban thinking. the human imagination, alerting an emo- contradictions and responsibilities tional response through images, debate, that we encounter personally and as • The Museum of Garbage by Flying theatre, poetry and performance – rousing a global society, encouraging reflec- Roots, presents an exhibition of and evocative – we have the power to give a tion on human relationships with waste in Istanbul, Turkey encouraging human voice to climate change, encourag- the natural environment. The first citizens to bring waste items – com- ing action to move our environment away commissions include the ‘Climate postables, one-time use rubbish and from further unnecessary destruction. Opera’1, a collaboration between reusable waste – from the streets We are not faced with two separate crises visual artist Shaun Gladwell, Dr and households of Istanbul. Curated (environmental and cultural), but one com- Cynthia Rosenzweig and the NASA & by Jessica Sim and Olivia Traut, out plex question. As Ariane Koek, Founder of Goddard Institute for Space Studies, of the concern for ecology and waste Arts@CERN, the large hadron collider in to create an audio-visual language to management, and the responsibility of Switzerland, described ‘the level of heated communicate the emotional impact the individual consumer within a com- debate about the so-called two-cultures of the scientific research on climate plex state-organised system. In a city is a constant source of bafflement to me. change; ‘Streaming 2.0’ and ‘Message where the majority of municipal solid Of course arts and science are linked. Both in a Bottle’ workshop both focus on waste is landfilled, according to the are about creativity. Both require technical the pollution and decay of the water in ‘Gurdal Kanat Waste Management mastery. And both are about exploring the Greece – the main river in Athens, the Report 2010’2, the environmental limits of human potential.’ Kifissos and the Karla Lake in Thessaly. repercussions in Turkey are vast. In ‘Streaming 2.0’ German artist Repositioning waste gathered from In his guest contribution to this publication, Alexander Schellow follows local and Çukurcuma as part of ‘The Museum ‘Prefiguring sustainability’, Sacha Kagan trans-local narrations to create a map of Garbage’, rather than trying to describes this as ‘spaces of possibility’, of walks through the city, interacting transform items into something where an artist invites audiences to experi- with people who live in close proximity new, created a space to access facts ence new and uncertain situations based on to the river. ‘Message in a Bottle’ dis- and figures visually and process the relationships of trust. Working to convey cusses the government management scale of the waste problem through and evoke the imminence and enormity of of the lake, to control malaria spread interaction. climate impacts are a roster of successful and annual flooding, to the point that case studies: all the water was drained. Collecting • Basurama is an arts collective based stories, Alexander Schellow and Valya in Madrid, Spain studying the var- • MELD is an interactive global art Stergioti aim to ‘refill’ the lake with ious phenomena inherent in global platform cultivating social change in memories, thoughts and dreams. mass-consumer society, and the real Greece, the work of artists Corinne and virtual rubbish it creates as an Weber and Yvonne Senouf. Working • FACT, Fabrique Active du Paysage, unavoidable outcome. Basurama with a collective of artists, it aims to aims to reveal public areas, to ‘cre- encourages different perspectives on find creative solutions to the conse- ate places able to elicit sensations, the subject to generate new thoughts quences of climate change because experience, feelings and emotions’ and attitudes on waste management. ‘when art melds into the public realm of L’Île-Saint-Denis in France, involv- Aiming to find gaps in the processes of in unexpected ways, it has the power ing residents in artistic intervention, production and consumption not only to reach people beyond the traditional using their knowledge of the urban raises questions about society’s inter- limitations of class, age, race and edu- landscape. The aim is underpinned actions with man-made resources, but cation to encourage public action’. by clear environmental considera- how we manage them, how we think, The project is guided by a passionate tions – to create a sensitive urban work and perceive reality.

belief in the power of art to create 1 http://blog.meld.cc/category/projects-2/ climate-change-hip-pop-opera/ 2 www.yildiz.edu.tr/~kanat/wm.doc

8

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• The Apocalypse Project is a new art and design platform created by Catherine Young based in Singapore that creates projects aiming to con- front and question the future of envi- ronment. ‘Climate Change Couture’ (‘Fashion for a Hotter Planet’) ima- gines the future of fashion design through discussions with scientists regarding their research. A runway of women adorned in flower gasmasks, boiler suits and netting, the U-Suit for urine sanitation, and a cooling dress with an integrated energy source to cool you down. The ‘Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store’ recreates a curiosity shop of smells that could disappear from the natural world because of climate change, including coasts threatened by rising sea levels, and the honey plight due to the decline ‘Ice’ by Catherine Young, The Apocalypse Project - the Ephemeral Marvels Perfume of bees. The ‘Future Feast’ looks at Shop (picture: courtesy of Catherine Young) the food ecosystem and imagines the future of popular food without key ingredients such as meat and dairy. Through ‘the Apocalypse Project’ lies the ‘intention of engaging the public • Be The Change: A Global Inside Out the socio-ecological crisis that we are in climate change in a way that makes Project is a global participatory art facing. Now, almost five years down it more personal and poetic, and less project uniting 15 countries and 26 the road the network wants to take political’. cities around the world with the aim a step up. From analysing the current to visually share the stories of those crisis and raising awareness around • The Lab Teater Ciputat in Indonesia who believe in change and living a it, it needs to focus more on imagin- works with inhabitants of Pulau more sustainable life with respect for ing, studying and making prototypes Panggang, directly experiencing the their natural and human environment. of possible futures, while remaining consequence of sea level rise. Using It was an action ‘born from the reali- firmly rooted in cultural practices. theatre as a means of expression sation that climate change is not just The new Imagine 2020(2.0) network to communicate the relationship about global warming, but about the wants to speculate about a sustain- between nature and man on the island, human stories that unite us as world able future by modelling it in artistic fisherman are invited into rehearsals, citizens’. Black and white photographic creations and experiments that allow having directly experienced habitat portraits were pasted in the streets, alternative perspectives to emerge.. decline, salinity of drinking water, revealing and sharing the untold sto- In 2012 Imagine 2020 commissioned migration for survival. ries of everyday people. Born from the Michael Pinsky to create the public art realisation that climate change is not project ‘Plunge’ in London – imagin- • 7 ARTE is a group of local artists in just about global warming but about ing the city 1000 years in the future, Mitrovica, Kosovo using culture to the human stories that unite world subject to the vast effects of climate transform an industrial city to a green citizens, Be The Change aims to bring change. A series of blue light rings city. The GREEN Open Air Cinema is people together from different back- around London marked anticipated an annual event, inventing and pro- ground to create a unified message. sea level rise at 28 metres. To mark moting new public places and tackling the five-year anniversary of the net- environmental issues. Their Green • Imagine 2020 started as a network work, ‘THERE IS NOTHING THAT Music Festival aims to raise public of arts organisations in 2010. The IS BEYOND OUR IMAGINATION’ awareness on environmental pro- main focus of the network was raising was published, documenting artistic tection and conservation, and is sup- awareness in the cultural field and in work and collating essays from 40 ported by the European Commission a broader civil society context around contributors. Culture programme. climate change and more in general

9

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

Extending the reach to new audiences, fes- tivals across the world are asking questions about the environment. These include, but in no way exhaust, the following:

• The KOLI Environmental Art Festival is an international environmental art project in Finland taking place in the Koli National Park, emphasising site-specific responses.

• Ecoismi in Italy is an international pro- gramme of contemporary art instal- lations with a mission to convey the value of environmental sustainability, with a theme of ‘man and the ways of nature’ in 2015.

• The Festival Les Envies Rhônements takes place in the Camargue, France, where ecological issues are rife in the Flower your Culture, from 7 ARTE (photo: Lulzim Hoti;_graffiti by Taulant Qerkini local environment. Iulzim)

• ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 in Australia is a festival presented by Climarte, uses art as a catalyst for change, encouraging creative expres- Extending beyond emotional responses, we Art Environmental Report’ recognises sion to communicate rich relation- must strive to measure the impact artistic that ‘human decision-making is often not ships with nature. interventions have, particularly in making rational: it is driven by desires and fears change and encouraging action. Without rooted in unconscious values shaped by • SALT is a low-key festival that ran on data to support the impact of our artistic context and the stories we tell’. the Norwegian island of Sandhornøy action, we are in the dark about the extent in 2015, and will circumnavigate to which we are contributing. Both in terms Earth’s most northerly settlements of evoking change and thought in our audi- in years to come, across Greenland, ences, and in terms of our own sustainable • Sustaining Creativity: Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Ireland, practice. As Chantal Bilodeau addresses in Julie’s Bicycle Scotland, Spitsbergen, Alaska and her attached essay ‘Striving for meaning- Russia. It aims to talk about global ful impact’, focus on quantifiable measure- Launched in 2007, Julie’s Bicycle (London, climate change in way that is honest, ments – How many people bought tickets? UK) is now recognised as a world-leading with care and respect for the Arctic How many books did I sign? How many authority on environmental sustainability landscape. Through readings, art miles did I travel? – is squeezing the life out in the arts and culture. Their first published projects, concerts, theatre and local of the industry, blind to the subtler impacts research working with Oxford University’s food, all taking place around a central of art. It would be idle to think we can exist Environmental Change Institute, tracking fiskehjelle (fish rack), a strong symbol without measuring impact, but this has the UK music industry’s annual carbon of northern livelihoods. to be realistic and not excessive. Yasmine emissions has created a framework for Ostendorf, in her attached essay ‘The S- them to develop a model for progressive • 2Degrees Festival in the UK asks word’ outlines the importance of Julie’s change, incorporating arts, science and what can we do together to create Bicycle’s IG Tools in measuring sustainabil- environmental communities in mobilising a sustainable future? Presenting a ity in a reactive and relevant way for every- cultural practice and presentation. Their number of international responses, day arts practitioners. Julie’s Bicycle are work has prompted profound changes in performances, debates and public practical, forward-thinking and not taking operational and artistic practice, carbon installations, the festival urges posi- no for an answer in fundamentally changing reductions of over 23,000 tonnes of CO2e tive action in the community. the way we integrate sustainable practice since 2008, and financial savings of over in the sector. Working in partnership with £3.7m. They are advocates for changing Arts Council England across the national everyday practice and creating systemic portfolio, Julie’s Bicycle’s ‘Sustaining Great

10

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

change, with a mission to build a global A little less conversation, a little more Finding connections between communi- movement, fuelled with urgency and con- action ties, to share a common message, is vital viction, to address climate change. Starting in changing attitudes on a global scale. In with the ‘nuts and bolts’, the everyday pro- Continual market growth risks the ecologi- his attached essay ‘Community and art cess behind creative enterprises, Julie’s cal systems that we depend on for survival. as a way towards ecological sustainabil- Bicycle builds and reflects on the existing Communicating the risks must go beyond ity’ Marco Kusumawijaya looks in more practice in civic society, and existing cul- discussion and reflection in favour of action. detail at the importance of community-led tural values, to foster a greater narrative Is this the role of the arts? With the global change, projects like that being developed at policy level, ‘from changing light bulbs economy facing ever-increasing challenges, at the Bumi Pemuda Rahayu sustainability to shifting attitudes’, as it were. By focus- and resources for art provisions being hit learning centre in Indonesia, which uses ing on increasing awareness, comprehen- hard and fast, the value of a culture of cre- two basic ideas to progress artistic inter- sion and sustainability skills among arts ating art is undermined and threatened. If ventions in local communities: creative organisations, Julie’s Bicycle empowers the crux of public funding is defined only by conversation in people’s mother language, and informs cultural practitioners to cre- purpose, does the systemic cuts felt by the and change created on a manageable scale. ate emotionally responsive work with its arts sector deem artistic work purposeless? foundation in research integrity. Julie’s Art that is blind to, or unaffected by the Bicycle share tools, resources, research, Should art extend from reflection into world it inhabits, of which climate change factsheets and free guides, facilitate action? It has been fervently argued that is an unwavering reality, is arguably pas- knowledge-exchange across the networks arts and activism are different beings. But sive or simply not looking. Climate change they’re building and are ambitious in set- can art carve itself a place within this com- has no time for art in a vacuum. We need ting their goals. The work is underpinned plex infrastructure of politics, ideologies, provocation. by a fundamental basis in research and data and profits to influence long-term evaluation. Through the Creative IG Tools, policy when it comes to our limited anthro- Nudge theory is a concept that uses small pioneered by the charity, Julie’s Bicycle pogenic existence? Should it? acts of positive reinforcement and indirect can regularly monitor carbon footprint suggestions to influence motives, incen- and carbon intensity in the arts, including Whether that’s mutations of role, taking tives and decision-making. Without forbid- CO2e per m2 for performance venues, example from Alice Audrey Grindhammer ding any options or significantly changing CO2e per performance and CO2e per who calls herself a ‘garbologist’ in explor- economic incentives, a nudge can alter peo- audience data per person, per day, attend- ing solutions for the global waste crisis. Or ple’s behaviour in a predictable way. It has ing an outdoor event. Through the biennial holistic interpretations within our formal been found more effective than consensual ‘Sustaining Creativity’ survey, targeted at infrastructure, as per Amy Balkin whose change via direct instruction, legislation or senior leaders, Julie’s Bicycle track changes ‘Public Smog’ project aims to list the enforcement. It may be as simple as putting in working culture and strategic direction Earth’s atmosphere on the UNESCO World fruit at eye level, as opposed to banning to incorporate environmental sustainability Heritage Register. Or, of course, there is junk food. It is used avidly in behavioural in practice. This is evaluated through for- the fundamental human right to protest. science, political theory and economics. mal and informal indicators, including men- The public exposure of the Greenpeace Amplifying social behaviour is reinforced tions of environmental sustainability in arts campaign, a celebration of Shell retracting by the ability to connect through networks. press, comment pieces, sector reports, and Arctic drilling garnered high-profile sup- If social media has taught us anything, it is attendance at environmental conferences. port from the arts community, including that relationships are fundamentally valua- poetry by actor Emma Thompson, music ble in human coexistence. The scope to use from Charlotte Church and global support nudge theory to extend from short-term from actor Jude Law and musician Sir Paul often politically motivated initiatives to McCartney, among many others1. What has long-term behavioural changes that impact been termed a clash of David and Goliath a whole society can be permeated by fun- proportions between Big Oil and energy damental artistic preferences to commu- companies met with climate action groups nicate, educate, reflect, and question the singing praises of ecological responsibility, society we live in. can and must be governed. It cannot rely in the hands of companies who will trade our planet’s results for quick profits. Given the urgent and unstoppable question of climate change, questions need to shift to mass activity: our common global society.

1 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environ- ment/11898950/Emma-Thompson-joins-Greenpeace-to- celebrate-Shell-scrapping-Arctic-drilling.html

11

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• Everything Under the Sun, run by the Agora Collective, is an alterna- tive education programme based in Norway that merges the fields of food and art to respond to the issues of climate change through an inter- disciplinary experimental approach. ‘Exploring through texts, sounds and other elements, the ambiguity gen- erated by assumption is knowledge that leads to a collective paranoia and a misconception of the word ‘health’’. Our ecosystem will continue changing and has been in constant flux since the Ice Age – a mile-thick crust of ice covering the planet. In 2015 ten schol- arships were offered to artists, chefs and other creative minds to address these issues head-on by rejecting alarmism and mirroring aspects of climate change in their work. ‘The Gilles Jobin, Julius von Bismarck, ‘Quantum Dance’, inspired by a residence at Nordic Food Manifesto – Food from Collide@CERN-Geneva (photo by Grégory Batardon) the Backyard to the Table’ invited chef and fisherman Roderick Sloan to dis- cuss the threats to Nordic waters by reading environmental changes from its sea urchins and clams. The new It is a curious obsession to distance science • Cape Farewell unites creatives, sci- levels of precipitation and patterns of and the arts. All too often separated as if entists and informers to ‘engage and changing temperature that are caus- incompatible, in conflict or competition. inspire a sustainable and vibrant ing severe droughts across the globe We know what unites them is the culture future society’, with the ambition to are provoking a spate of agricultural of creativity and curiosity: science can be amplify a creative language to commu- fertility across the Nordic countries. creative and art, scientific. Albert Einstein nicate the urgency of global climate This project brings together experi- famously called ‘the greatest scientists… in a fundamentally human way. From mental cooperative organic farming artists as well’. More recently, sculptor London and Toronto, Cape Farewell and visual arts practice. Anthony Gormley shared his philosophy, supports action-based research to ‘that art and science are better together interrogate, share and educate on • Artist and scientist Catherine Young than apart’. This is seen best in a number of climate and future. Since 2003, they hiked the 43 mountains of Seoul, successful collaborations that have focused have led eight Arctic expeditions, two South Korea gathering soil samples on environment and the manmade world. to the Scottish Islands and one to the from the foot of each mountain as Sharing knowledge, approach, innovation Peruvian Andes for professional art- part of the arts project Seoul 43. and a need to communicate on climate ists, scientists, educators and commu- Exhibiting the soil samples she invited change, encouraging inter-disciplinary pol- nicators using the power of visually the public to take a direct action and lination bringing together new languages, experiencing the effects of climate plant something in the scavenged and ways of working. Similarly opening up in these places – the effects of ocean soil, or undertake a journey to return the parameters of scientific exploration currents that regulate the earth’s the soil home to the mountains. The to artists allows the opportunity for new temperature – to interrogate a social work attempted to go beyond a basic approaches and innovation. This is perhaps attitude towards climate, and encour- discussion to encourage audiences to best illustrated in the pioneering work of ages disruption. Climate scientists explore their own relationship with Cape Farewell that has sent writers, artists, predict than in as few as fifty years, nature. comics, actors and musicians to experience without significant global change in the impact of global warming in the Arctic behaviour and lifestyle, there may be Circle. Cape Farewell asks, ‘What does no summer ice at the North Pole at Culture have to do with Climate Change? the rate of warming we are currently Everything’. experiencing. Using these journeys as inspiration, participants have created

12

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

a significant body of artwork, exhibi- tions, publications and educational resources aiming to jumpstart a cul- tural shift towards sustainable life- styles. They sail to the heart of the climate debate, the tip of the iceberg.

• Great Arts for Great Science rec- ognises the mutual fascination of an arts-science collaboration, initiated by the science community at CERN, the large hadron collider in Geneva, Switzerland: the largest physics lab- oratory on the planet. Built around three projects, Collide@CERN, Accelerate@CERN and Visiting Artists, and enjoying partnerships with the European Network of Art and Science and Ars Electronic, CERN is explicit in its intention to ‘put art and science on the same cultural level’. In Olivier Darné et le Parti Poétique, ‘La République forestière’, 2015 (picture: courtesy 2009 Ariane Koek, the Founder of of Le Parti Poétique) Arts@CERN found that their scien- tists felt very disconnected from vis- iting artists and to avoid this isolation established the programme which encourages artists and researchers to • Les Échelles Perchoirs is an art instal- interpreting and sensing water, a fun- work side by side. Particle physics and lation working with farmers living and damental part of Maori culture. Arts the arts are ‘inextricably linked’ in that working in Franche-Comté, France. activity under the name ‘Wandering they both grapple with concepts of In the dairy farming community Reservoirs’ was designed to create our existence – what it is to be human there have been significant problems environments for interactive connec- and what our place is in the universe. caused by the effects of the natural tions with water, including a scientific Inviting artists, musicians, dancers, predators of water vole – buzzards, laboratory, a video an animation, an performers – a cross-section of the red kite, owls, etc. The impact has audio installation, site-specific chore- artistic community – CERN hopes to extended from physical damage and ography and outreach programmes. cultivate an environment of recipro- health risks to financial costs and use The artistic investigation formed cal inspiration, sharing two unique of chemical control (and the effects it part of a major cross-disciplinary professions and two different world has on the natural environment). This research initiative at the University views. CERN also directly embraces artwork created a forum to discuss of Auckland, bringing researchers digital technology inviting artists who and respond. and academics into the project to want to engage with particle physics explore sustainable interventions. and scientific collaboration. The deci- • Fluid City brought together cho- ‘Transforming Cities: Innovations for sion to build a cultural strategy, Great reographers, dancers, designers, Sustainable Futures’ published the Arts for Great Science, seems only scientists, an architect, planner and findings of the project. natural, rooted in a ‘deep-seated con- educator to create a collaboration viction’ that they share a single culture increasing awareness of water issues • Ars Electronica Festival is excep- and equally relevant to research and in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland City, tional at encouraging conversation innovation in the 21st century. Ariane New Zealand to coincide with the and innovation between art, science Koek puts it simply: ‘CERN scientists UN World Water Day in 2012. There and design to ask questions using are selected for their excellence and is a sense of abundance when it comes digital technology. Each year the fes- brilliance’. The idea is that Arts@ to global water, Fluid City confronted tival in Linz, Austria, is dedicated to a CERN makes steps towards doing the its misuse, appropriation and pollu- theme that directly impacts, or forces same, working to support excellence tion looking at urban ecosystems, change in society. In 2015, the dele- in the Arts community. microbiology and river geomorphol- gation tackled ‘POST CITY – Habitats ogy. It prompted new ways of seeing, for the 21st Century’ innovating and

13

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

engaging in discussion around the configuration of the world cities of our future. What will things look like when there are more robots than peo- ple? What are the risks if everything is digitally interlinked? When cars drive themselves? When drones deliver mail and feed the fish? A fundamen- tal element to the symposium theme was the effects of climate change within the eco system – how do we as artists rethink urban living spaces, particularly for cities on coastal paths? Bringing together professionals from different disciplines encourages shar- ing different perspectives, approaches and ultimately aims to cultivate solu- tions to the effects of climate change, and confronting the future.

• ‘Change! The Forest Republic’, a pro- Sinfonía Trópico (picture: Martin Meyer) ject organised by the Parti Poétique in France aims to regrow a forest in dense urban centres, linking directly into the COP21 agenda. Aiming to raise questions around sensitivity, such as the loss of important ecosys- with Kathy Jetnil Kijiner, Gideon Mendel, encourage engagement and celebrate tems. Environmental activists and Tomas Saraceno and Mel Chin, the summit life, the forest is understood as part experts discuss the socio-economic collects creative ambition at the core of of the continuing artistic movement and political contexts of diversity. In discussions and establishes a framework ‘Fluxus’, that ‘art is life’. addition, the artists and experts seek that the organisers hope will ‘invent and to engage the public in the different build a better tomorrow’. The ArtCOP21 • The Living Data Programme in areas to generate debate. SINFONÍA Professional Workshop will, over two days, Australia creates exhibitions that TRÓPICO was launched in 2014 will invite industry professionals to share pre- contribute to a ‘big picture’ overview extend over a period of 2 years. liminary reports and international recom- of the co-evolution of life and the mendations that encourage cultural lead- environment, encouraging truth to ership in sustainable development. Run by science, clear language and sensory COAL, Julie’s Bicycle, IFACCA and On The appeal to mitigate harmful human • COP21: The arts and civil Move, it facilitates dialogue between policy impacts. Combining the mutual inter- society respond makers, funders and the arts sector, with ests of scientists and artists to inter- the aim to disseminate a common pledge act with each other and the public ArtCOP21 is an urgent invitation to developed through workshops and discus- in a language that moves away from artists, creatives and makers to pick up sions. ArtCOP21 invites responses and dense, jargon. paintbrushes, instruments and join the action from the cultural sector across the streets of Paris to respond in numbers to world. • SINFONÍA TRÓPICO is an arts-envi- the COP21 UN Climate Talks. ArtCOP21 ronment project that focuses on bio- presents a festival of cultural activity, • The World Climate Change diversity, deforestation and climate connecting people to the climate change Conference, a Rimini Protokoll pro- change in Colombia. It uses the threat agenda through a global programme of duction, riffs on the discussions due to nature as a source of inspiration for 290 major events in 34 countries. It puts to take place at the UN Climate Talks, performances, concerts, exhibitions art in the climate debate. Activity includes creating a parody of the event in and debates at different locations the ArtCOP21 Conference of Creative Germany. An audience meets in the and venues across Colombia. Artists Parties, an international summit for art- Hamburger Spielhaus and is invited to explore various aspects of the continu- ists, creatives, designers, scientists, phi- represent one of the parties present ing loss of biodiversity. Scientists high- losophers and intellectuals to develop a at the UN Climate Talks, and negoti- light various environmental problems manifesto for tomorrow’s world. Working ate on their behalf. The audience takes

14

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

on the role of the performers in this • POC21, standing for ‘Proof of approaches, utopias, progressive nar- ‘drama of diplomacy’, playing dele- Concept’ 21, was an innovation camp, ratives and, fundamentally, a positive, gates in an attempt to understand the taking place in France from August- holistic vision of change. Developed as process and questions of compromise. September 2015 in the lead up to a series of two day programmes, the Parties battle with one another, block, COP21. Frustrated by the conveyor Creative Factory will tackle topics veto, and insist on their own position. belt of climate conferences creating including ‘getting to grips with behav- Alliances are formed and power rela- more time to talk, rather than take iour change and identity’, ‘harnessing tionships inevitable. As an audience action, POC21 brought together over the power of spirituality… with faith- member, you could: represent India 100 makers, designers, engineers, based communities’ and ‘empathy and aim to undermine the plan of scientists and geeks for a five week between North and South’. Run by action by introducing feeble formu- immersive camp to prototype the fos- Forever Swarm, the Creative Factory lations and making a minimum com- sil-free, zero-waste society we should will reinterpret, and inject empathy mitment; represent Canada or Japan be striving for. A proof of concept that and humanity into the topic of the day who have turned their backs on the collaborative production, open source from COP21. ; represent Paris and sharing and the makers movement can champion reparations for Bangladesh have on creating disruption. Building • Ecostage, a new global initiative as compensation for flooding and the most functional and replicable cell aimed at the performing arts sector storms. Rimini Protokoll aim to look of sustainable society, POC21 aims to and launching in December 2015 beyond the argument: ‘when the change society: change an approach establishing ‘ecological thinking at issue is revealing the causes of cli- that is driven by a destructive con- the heart of creative practice’. The mate change it is all about the facts. sumer culture, mainstream the means ecostage pledge will incorporate a By contrast, when developing options of sustainable living, change politics ‘stamp’ to share on documentation for action the matter at hand is ulti- and attitudes. Based on principles of as a mark of recognition for environ- mately values.’ sharing, working locally, creating long- mentally conscientious practice. Free term solutions, and moving away from to join, the pledge is a public effort to • The Theater of Negotiations (Make passive consumption to active advo- share a set of values and encourage it Work) took place in May 2015 as cates of sustainable lifestyles. From action. Created by a team of scenog- a collaboration between SciencesPo: the work developed at POC21, open raphers, Tania Beer, Andrea Carr and The School of Political Arts, led by source blueprints have been shared Alice Hoult, and following an ongo- political ecologies Bruno Latour, and globally ing collaboration with web designer Nanterre–Amandiers, France, to Samuel Overington, Ecostage is create an ‘unprecedented political, • ArtCOP Scotland is a decentral- an ‘act of storytelling’. The pledge diplomatic, educational and artistic ised artistic response to COP21 in includes commitments to ‘consider experience’. Building a simulation of Paris, taking place in the UK. ArtCOP local opportunities’ and ‘challenge the December COP21 climate nego- Scotland unites different partners to existing unsustainable practices, per- tiations with more than 200 inter- explore sustainable futures, with a ceptions and assumptions’. national students and the general programme of events, creative explo- public, representing 41 delegations. ration, debate and discussion. After • Doppelgangster indulges creative Designing a theatrical framework for building momentum for climate solu- collaboration between Australia, political action, the aim of the project tions with the Green Art Lab Alliance South Korea and the UK, creating was not to mock the negotiations but (GALA) project that took place in cultural responses to climate change, experiment with them, understand Glasgow, ArtCOP Scotland contin- forced migration and globalisation and transform the discussion in a will- ues to build a creative response, led using technology to extend their reach ing environment as a pre-enactment by partners Creative Carbon Scotland to new audiences. ‘Doppelgangster or simulation. The backdrop of the and Gayfield Creative Spaces. (DEAD)’ will ‘debate, exchange, theatre encouraged dramatization address and disrupt’ the discussions of the discussions, to imagine a place • The Creative Factory at Place To at COP21 asking artists, scientists, for arts and culture that is both sci- B, Paris, France, running parallel to journalists, politicians and citizens in entifically and aesthetically relevant. COP21 negotiations, creates a hot- Paris key questions from the negoti- A deconstruction of the process, col- spot of fresh thinking and ideas with ations. Doppelgangster aims to ask lecting thoughts, observations and the aim to rewrite the climate story the difficult questions, with a ‘brutal representations of the ‘negotation’ is in the visions of artists, filmmakers, reckoning of rising water levels, lim- now available to read as a theatre play poets, experts, journalists and cam- ited supplies and hard truths’. – ‘A Theatre of Negotiations - Make it paigners. Aimed to be a dynamic and Work’ by Clémence Hallé & Anne- multi-disciplinary experiment, The Sophie Milon. Creative Factory will look at systemic

15

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

Big Oil, Big Art, Big Question In equal measure, the trend in big oil spon- sorship has received plentiful opposition. 03. Ethics occupies a lot of the discussion when Rising Tide UK’s Art Not Oil coalition aims iT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN it comes to art and the environment1. The to put an end to oil industry sponsorship relationships between high-profile arts of the arts. Liberate Tate is a network Sustainable practice must extend beyond a providers and environmentally unsustaina- dedicated to taking creative disobedience purely conceptual subject matter in art. We ble, profit-driven companies exploiting nat- against the British institution Tate until it must recognise the importance of sustaina- ural resources, is one that receives ongoing drops oil company funding. Generation ble processes, and take action to work in a media scrutiny and activism. The freedom Alpha have challenged Brisbane Gallery way that reduces environmental impact in of the arts to confront and comment on the Of Modern Art (GOMA)’s oil sponsor- the approach to creation: from production environment is perhaps dirtied by the affili- ship staging the death of a Koala bear to design, management, travel and evalua- ation with companies who have vastly con- who pretended to die after a chemical tion. It is vital that the arts community sets tributed to climate decay. Is this justified? leak in a local aquifer with contaminants an example by working sustainably. Green Do these associations restrict freedom to including arsenic, uranium, lead and nickel. practice is not achievable in isolation. To create dialogue in criticism of the activity Yoko Ono founded the New York alliance thrive, it relies on an infrastructure of of fossil fuel companies, and how do these Artists Against Fracking. In Norway, the financial viability, encourages digital inno- associations implicate the artists they seek Stopp Oljesponsing av Norsk Kulturliv vation and is ambitious for lasting impact. to support? Art that is dangerous, contro- tries to distance links between public The timeless questions remain: how do we versial or critical of big oil is undermined funding and fossil fuels. Jazz sous les make work abroad if travelling has large by sponsorship. The willingness to receive Pommiers in France refused Areva’s sup- environmental consequences? How do high-profile sponsorship from big oil com- port, connected with the nuclear sector. we work with green business if we don’t panies, fails to tackle climate objectives. The Reclaim Shakespeare Company took have the funds for investment? Where do the stage in an interval at the Roundhouse we draw the line between ethics and spon- At a time when the arts are increasingly encouraging the general public to tear the sorship? How do we continue to make art reliant on financial backing from alterna- logos of oil companies out of the theatre when so much time and resource must go tive and corporate sources due to funding programme. ‘At a time when the world into measuring outputs? Influencing the cuts, do we need to be clearer about ethical should fear much more the heat of the sun infrastructure within which art is made values and whom we associate with? Can and the furious winter’s rages, BP is con- is crucial to making active, conscientious ethics ever be a collective decision and is spiring to distract us from the naked truth decisions about the approach we take in it justified to vilify organisations who do of climate change and with its daring folly cultivating environmentally sustainable choose to continue to engage relation- burn the world’ and in naming and sham- practice. Rethinking policy support needs ships with big oil support? One thing is ing the oil giant, The Reclaim Shakespeare to consider the nuances of arts in the wider certain, funding from big oil companies Company have facilitated interventions at community. Funding institutions responsi- and the debate it invites, has become the World Shakespeare Festival and Royal ble for setting a benchmark for sustainable a regular topic of conversation for arts Shakespeare Company. The Fossil Funds practice must avoid using ‘sustainability’ as organisations. Tate Britain has recently Free consortium between the UK and a trend or fad, one for tick boxes on applica- celebrated 25 years of BP sponsorship, America, pledges a commitment not to take tion forms and the domain of the wealthy. and a number of other British institutions, any oil, coal or gas corporate sponsorship. To truly invite a culture shift for a new including the National Gallery, British Activists at the UN Climate Talks are plan- environmental standard in arts practice, Museum and Natural History Museum ning to target the Louvre in Paris over the we need to see real financial investment to continue to receive BP’s financial support. art gallery’s ties with French oil company support a change in behaviour. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, home Total, and Italian oil company Eni. of the New York City Ballet and New York City Opera, and the Smithsonian’s National The normalisation of fossil fuels usage Museum of Natural History in America means polluting the environment is an have received significant sponsorship from inevitable and unavoidable consequence. oil fortunes. GOMA - Gallery Of Modern ‘Crude’ behaviour as it were, becomes nor- Art in Brisbane, Australia, received spon- mality and the social conscience attached sorship from Santos GLNG. It was only in to the profits of big oil organisations is November 2015 that the Science Museum overshadowed. Supporting culture has UK pulled out of a controversial sponsor- arguably given big oil a ‘social licence to ship deal with Shell. operate’ or a ‘licence to spill’. ‘Greenwash’ for big oil organisations acts to protect 1 The topic of ethically controversial sponsorship for the reputations and mythologise an environ- arts is discussed at length in IETM’s publication The Art of Disobedience, dealing with the relationship between arts and mentally responsible public image that may politics, https://www.ietm.org/en/publications

16

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

have been marred by oil spills or deep-sea drilling, distracting attention and buying acceptance. Motive-driven sponsorship that seeks to cover up unethical behaviour does more damage than good and stifles the demands of justice for communities directly affected by polluting practice: a distraction from human rights impacts, and poor ecological efforts. And when it comes to arts sponsorship, motive of self-interest is hard to paint over; we must preserve clarity at the intentions and narratives behind this funding. As author, filmmaker and social activist Naomi Klein wrote in ‘No Logo’ , ‘we become collectively convinced not that corporations are hitching a ride on our cultural and communal activities, but that creativity and congregation would be impossible without their generosity’.

Mel Evans’ recent publication ‘Artwash: Big Jason deCaires Taylor, ‘The rising tide’, underwater sculpture’ (picture: Jason deCaires Oil and the Arts’ confronts the intricacies Taylor) of big oil relationships, and asks if cultural organisations, in accepting money, become accomplices to environmental crimes. A clean motive would perhaps be more per- suasive if big oil was funding small organisa- encouraging outreach to local people and practice. Sacha Kagan argues that ‘sustain- tions and community projects and not just craftsmen, inviting artists actively looking ability’ needs reinvention. It has become aiming to win big in public relations impact to work and learn about local materials the go-to funder criteria, alongside ‘com- by supporting Big Art with relatively small and knowledge to influence their artistic munity’, ‘digital’ and ‘innovative’. What feels contributions. process. Using the residency programme, like an ethical cheat-sheet – a fast track to Cemeti Art House hopes to highlight and social virtue – whereby we can tick a box Increasingly trusts, foundations and pub- extend the value of travel visits to maximise to say we’re sustainable without demon- lic funds are recognising the importance the potential both for the artist, but also the strating long-term vision or impact, is a of supporting environmental practice. benefits for local communities. dangerous way to side-step the real envi- Earmarking resources for sustainable cap- ronmental concerns. There is a sense that ital development, sustainable travel and Green Fatigue sustainability equates to social good. But ecological design within the process of the moral high ground will soon be under- making leaves decisions about green prac- The newspaper The Guardian described water alongside Bangladesh, Venice, the tice in the hands of funders, grant schemes sustainability as ‘the geeky, pimply teen- Pacific Islands, and numerous coastal cities and artist in residency programmes. From ager who has come to our party, turned off around the world. a Southeast Asian perspective, be compari- the music and told us that we would really son, opportunities to fund travel are limited. be much happier if we stopped having so Sustainability represents the chase for Being “green” becomes an achievement of much fun’1. Are we suffering from green something impossible: there is simply no financial, social and political context, far fatigue? ‘Sustainability’ is undoubtedly the end game in working conscientiously. It more than an active choice. Realistically, buzzword gracing the lips of artists, busi- cheats real change, and side steps a lan- the resources and incentive for sustainable nessmen and politicians alike. What was guage and dialogue of positive develop- practice stops at the funder’s door. once ‘eco’ or ‘green’ is now ‘sustainable’, and ment. Sustainability represents survival it does little to capture the imagination or and scarcity. The world of capital, profits Extending visits to work with local com- or understand the challenges presented by and instant gratification is far more inter- munities, network and explore make contemporary culture. It is a word that is ested in prosperity and growth. necessary travel more sustainable. Mella lost in translation, not just in different cul- Jaasma, co-director of Cemeti Art House tural contexts, as Yasmine Ostendorf high- in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, has worked with lights in her work in Asia, but in everyday artists through a residency programme 1 http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ sustainability-movement-faces-extinction

17

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• Julie’s Bicycle Creative IG Tools make the process of understanding environ- mental impact straightforward using a set of free carbon calculators. The tools measure energy consumption, water usage and generation, waste and recycling, transport and travel of audiences and staff, freighting, and impacts from production materials. Developed against a set of bench- marks using data collected through Creative Industry Green certificates, the IG Tools offer a breakdown of your greenhouse as emissions by source, and benchmarks of the typical per- formance in the UK. They offer a free way to monitor carbon emissions and help users revise priorities.

• The Green Art Lab Alliance (GALA) is a recent collaboration between 19 ufaFabrik in Berlin, Germany (picture: ufaFabrik) European cultural organisations using visual arts and design to explore envi- ronmental sustainability, supported by the EU Culture Programme. The GALA Funding Guide produced by • ufaFabrik is an arts and ecology generates enough energy to power On The Move and COAL, provides ‘urban village’ in the centre of outdoor lighting. Remaining electric- a comprehensive inventory of pub- Germany, using the arts to cultivate ity needed for the venue is provided lic, private, international, European, social commitment, because ‘noth- by a 100% renewable energy supplier, national, regional and local funds, ing is more constant than change’. and has been since 2003. All electri- open calls and initiatives. All sources It receives around 200,000 visitors cal appliances and equipment, heating, support culture and environment pro- per year and includes a public space ventilation and cooling are monitored jects. It includes resources and tips for events, programming, interna- and controlled by a computer system from the GALA partners, and explores tional meetings, artist residencies specifically designed to calculate different approaches to sustainability. and cross-disciplinary social expe- the actual energy requirements to GALA will expand activity into Asia riences. ufaFabrik engages directly adapt the internal energy system’s from December 2015 through the with artists and the general public outputs. The energy consumption of ‘GALA-Asia’ initiative. to educate and share experiences on the seven buildings of ufaFabrik are diverse approaches to environmental managed and maintained so they are sustainability. They have been at the optimally efficient and not creating forefront of best practice in enshrin- energy wastage. Green roofs on most It is important to recognise the best prac- ing sustainability in organisational (although not all) of the buildings aim tice examples where the arts community outputs. ufaFabrik introduced on to improve thermal efficiency: keeping extends beyond conceptualisation to the of the first combined heat and the buildings insulated in the winter, enshrine environmental practice in their power plants in Berlin, updated with and cooler in the summer. Exhaust air approach. With support from funding bod- a computer-controlled system in the from a number of buildings is used in ies, and frequently with partnership from early 1990s. The power system fuels a heat exchanger to heat incoming air. environmental organisations, the arts approximately 75% of the total elec- Windows have heat-insulating glazing. community is exemplary in championing tricity needed to power the buildings. UfaFabrik are a case example of sus- social change in a way that incorporates The ceiling cavity is filled with envi- tainable practice being more than a environmental goals, be that through man- ronmentally friendly insulation made concept in their work, but a conscious aging emissions, using recycled materials or from recycled paper. Other areas have decision to make an active difference using digital technology to avoid travelling sheep’s wool insulation in the roof and put environmental sustainability where possible. space. There are solar panels fitted to at the heart of arts practice. the roof area, and a wind turbine that

18

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• The Recycling Labyrinth was an exhibition by Mona Sfeir built on the grounds of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland for World Environment Day 2011. Built with 8000 plastic bottles, the approximated number of plastic bottles that go into a land- fill every second on earth, the laby- rinth was a lens on the importance of recycling and enormity of waste production. It is estimated that 350- 400 billion bottles are produced on a yearly basis and only around 20% of them are recycled. The rest end up in landfill. The Recycling Labyrinth only used recycled materials in its creation. Mona Sfeir’s work has highlighted chemical use in the flower industry, deforestation and plan extinction and seeks to empower. ‘Alcina’, International Festival of Lyrical Art of Aix en Provence, France (picture: Patrick • The International Festival of Lyrical Berger _ ArtcomArFe Art of Aix en Provence, France has implemented a fundamental shift in approach to sustainable development, with a new policy including more than one hundred environmental, eco- • Megaro Goes Green is a strategic transforming its culture, updating nomic, social and governance actions. project initiated by the management physical infrastructure and is explic- This is complemented by the ‘Charter of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall in itly ‘supporting artists who address of the Eco-festival Participant’, which Greece in 2012, with an aim to facil- the realities of climate change in their gives advice to would-be festival-go- itate a change to fully-sustainable artistic practice’. The Suitcase Series ers, raising questions and awareness and environmentally-friendly cultural aimed to engage young audiences about the use of natural resources management in their activities. It has and teenagers with how to tackle the around the event. In particular, this included mapping energy consump- greatest challenge of our generation. approach changes how the festival tion for lighting and air conditioning It encouraged school students to conceives design, integrating green and gradually reducing consumption devise their own works in response processes to production and devel- across usage. The policy framework to a commissioned script, giving them opment. The festival has developed a for sustainable management, the first a platform to respond while learning concurrent research project, invest- of its kind in Greece has been designed about theatre skills. The current com- ing time into new materials within the by trustee, Iphigenia Taxopoulou, who mission is Turbine by Dan Giovannoni, production cycle (from manufacture also acts as the General Secretary and and four responsive plays by students to construction, installation and waste founding member of mitos21, bring- will be shared in 2016. creation). The aim is to create a com- ing together some of Europe’s most prehensive contemporary approach powerful theatre institutions. mitos21 • Cultural think-tank Greentrack to reusing and prolonging the life of is in the process of building a transna- Gent, Belgium cultivates exchange design. The festival has worked with tional ‘green’ cultural project. At the and experimentation to target a sus- numerous partners across France and time of printing, we wait for more tainable future in the community. A Brussels on developing this substan- information. network of around 50 cultural organ- tial project and connecting into knowl- isations in Ghent, including museums, edge-transfer networks. The first pro- • The Malthouse Greenlight initiative theatres, concert halls, festivals, the- ject implementing these changes, the initiative of Malthouse theatre is a atre companies and music companies Alcina opera, used 97% recyclable and call to arms to act on sustainability are working to stimulate social and reusable materials or materials that and respond to the challenges of ecological action and a step-change could be converted into new energy running a business making environ- in practice in the sector. As part of sources. mental considerations. Since 2010, the commitment to the Greentrack, the Australian company has been organisations commit to annually

19

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

measuring their carbon footprint and writing an annual action plan to make future improvements. The aim is to encourage a CO2 reduction estimated at 20% within the organisation, and 80% inspiring audiences (e.g. to use sustainable transport to travel to the cultural centre). The group of organ- isations use the forum to network, exchange ideas and share resources to look at tackling solutions together. Vooruit, one of the largest organisa- tions in the consortium, brokered a contract with a Belgian sustainable energy provider, incorporating 9 other organisations of different sizes into the negotiation as an opportunity for group purchasing. The project has inspired action in other Belgian cit- ies, and Greentrack consortiums are being developed in Leuven, Antwerp, ‘Troeptuintjes’, an Edible Garden Ghent - public are encouraged to pick and try Liège, Kortrijk and Bruges. (picture: Greentrack Gent)

• ‘Ruins of Desire’ was a phrase coined by a Japanese monk named Ennin when referring to human consump- tion and waste. It is also the title of a Digital as a platform for making art offers instead of an exhibition, Skype and social new outdoor project at the Verbeke an untamed realm of possibilities: how we media to gather audience feedback instead Foundation Kemzeke in Belgium by communicate, collaborate and present of an after-show Q&A. Not that this should visual artist Jan Eric Visser. Concrete work can supersede expensive, often pol- exist in isolation, it presents an opportunity is the second-most produced mate- lutant travel alternatives. Globalisation to fundamentally change how art is made, rial in the world after drinking water. offers us the world on our doorstep, and and in relation to environment, signifi- It is a highly unsustainable resource mobility in the arts, giving us easy access cantly reduce overheads and impacts that due to the emissions it takes to pro- to people and new ideas across the globe, are borne in the traditional arts workplace. duce. The University of Technology in has become a crucial opportunity to create What we wait in anticipation of is a change Eindhoven has developed a new type a sustainable living as a professional artist. in approach by funding bodies to support of concrete whereby aggregates and Travel punctuates many artists lives as a digital creation. The Space, a high-profile cement have been replaced by waste normality for sharing their work with new agency, commissioning body and recipi- materials including glass. It has been audiences, investigating new environments ent of vast public funds in the UK, aims to rendered self-cleaning, eliminates air and approaching new collaborations. The pioneer art making in the digital sphere. It pollution and uses UV light to prevent artist’s role in interpreting the world relies supports artists and organisations to use the growth of algae, while biodegrad- on investigation, with which comes travel. technology to extend the reach of existing ing nitrogen oxides. Jan Eric Visser But international recognition, status and a activities, embrace innovation, connect uses Aquadyne, an innovative mate- global outlook have an inevitable environ- with new audiences, and play. ‘Karen is rial produced of 100% post-consumer mental impact. My Life Coach’, an app project created by plastics, to showcase the concrete Blast Theory and co-commissioned by The for the first time in sculpture form. Art in the Cloud offers a new sustaina- Space among other partners, uses digital The piece confronts the connection ble way of working that need not replace technology to offer a new gaming and sto- between man and matter, consumer travel, but extend reach to new audiences rytelling experience involving life coaching and waste. Micro and macro pores and collaborations. Creating work in the and personality profiling. NT Live digitally in the material allow for the roots of digital realm offers a freedom and immedi- streams National Theatre productions to plants, even vegetables to grow in the acy. It breaks the mould of traditional arts cinemas across the world, has displayed innovative material. needs: web hosting instead of a theatre, phenomenal success in pioneering digital PayPal instead of a box office split, Google enhancements to their service as a venue to Art in the Cloud Hangouts instead of a residency, the Cloud bridge the gap to new audiences who may

20

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

not want to travel, have financial limitations Digital cannot serve to replace arts prac- terms ‘the environmental dark side’. In on affording full price tickets, or may want tice – we must travel with more intention, 2020 digital technology will be producing to take a gamble on something new. stay longer, embrace new cultures, and a larger carbon impact than world avia- utilise technology for keeping in touch and tion. It extends beyond asking questions • Going Nowhere displayed the pos- extending the opportunity to make and col- of how our technology has been made, by sibilities of connecting with a global laborate. The virtues of travel may feed a whom, where and under what conditions, audience using digital, staging an Western rhetoric, where SEA artists do not to understanding the lifecycle and chain event in 2014 that happened simulta- necessarily have the funding schemes to of connections that contributes to carbon neously on two sides of the globe: at support travel projects and visas. The meet- emissions from your tablet, computer or the socially-engaged arts centre Arts ing of minds at the IETM Satellite Meeting phone. Data has a footprint, requiring huge House, Australia, and at the contem- in Melbourne in 2014 considered the envi- amounts of energy and space to store in the porary theatre Cambridge Junction, ronmental and practical implications of cloud – like mountains of rubbish bags in UK. Supported by a series of interna- ‘going nowhere’ – would this create oppor- landfill sites, the data we have created but tional collaborations, Going Nowhere, tunities for new work using digital? Would don’t use has its own emissions. created a forum to discuss embracing it stop artists collaborating overseas? The the future, exploring how artists, com- question must consider the value of travel Culture Shift munities and audiences can generate weighed against its impact. Is it pragmatic international collaboration and crea- to have a “controlled” or rationalised mobil- The purpose of governance is to change tive experiences from their own home: ity? It seems the option is more readily and develop policy to reflect a safe, dem- removing the need to get on a plane. available to artists and cultural profession- ocratic, tolerant and creative society that The event embraced and celebrated als who are presented with the choice and represents its citizens. Not just one that is the concept of ‘staying put and reach- financial means to actively travel – through profitable. It is important that the global ing out’. A biennial event, we await the tailored grant schemes and artist in res- challenges we know exist in our environ- 2016 instalment. idency programmes. For instance, from ment are addressed pragmatically, and a Southeast Asian, perspective (exclud- action is taken with immediacy at forums • Hydrocitizens is a digital forum ing perhaps Singapore), opportunities to like the UN Climate Talks (COP21) in creating community space to share travel are limited due to a general lack of December 2015, because time is running thoughts, ideas, projects and develop funding support. If this is the case, being out. Culture is at the heart of this debate. conversation on water and the “green” becomes a construct, an achieve- As outlined in the UCLG 2004 ‘Agenda21’ impacts that affect this vital resource. ment of financial, social and political con- report – we must recognise culture as the It invites users from across profes- text, far more than an active choice. Mella fourth pillar of sustainable development, sional practice: science and the arts Jaarsma, co-director of Cemeti Art House alongside the economy, social equal- to understand and share ideas around in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, has worked with ity and environmental balance. The UN how communities function in relation artists through a residency programme System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN to water. Supported by the Arts and encouraging outreach to local people and Development Agenda acknowledged that Humanities Research Council in the craftsmen, inviting artists actively looking we must integrate culture in the ‘concep- UK it forms part of a larger research to work and learn about local materials tion, measurement and practice’ of sustain- project, Hydrocitizenship, which and knowledge to influence their artistic able development. And what for the arts? It encourages the creation of artwork process. Using the residency programme, is our humanity. exploring human connections to Cemeti Art House hopes to highlight and water. It uses digital to create an ongo- extend the value of travel visits to maximise Understanding the power and impact of the ing, active and current dialogue for the potential both for the artist, but also the arts and culture to create systemic change artists engaged with water practice, benefits for local communities. in a society, based on values to protect our recognising the inter-connectivity environment, must extend to policy. Local is an underlying catalyst for change. Technology will completely change our authorities, municipalities and national gov- It encourages users to scale their approach to making, and can supplement ernments, we look to you. In anticipation of networks and become intelligently and extend the benefits of a successful COP21, it is easy to appropriate environ- connected. Hydrocitizens includes a mobility programme or remote collabora- ment and culture into policy rhetoric. But database of water projects, resources tion. Without the constraints of financial it seems to be the preserve of speeches, and an upload function to share ideas. support for travel, digital is changing the talks and media releases – a happy con- role of the artist, the nature of practice veyor belt of world summits, international and the exorbitant value of promotion and forums and talking, more talking – while we marketing. While this is the case, it is diffi- wait in anticipation for action. Xavier Prats cult to ignore the negative impacts of tech- Monne, DG for Education and Culture at nology worldwide, as Yasmine Ostendorf the European Commission, claims ‘the role

21

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

of culture for sustainable development is (UNGA 70) outcome document, still not well known and we must make it ‘Transforming Our World: the 2030 known. Culture is not the cherry on the Agenda for Sustainable Development’. cake – culture is the cake.’ We look for Global expenditure on develop- action in our own communities, to make ment until 2030 is outlined in the this known. An economic model, a culture UNGA document. Culture was com- shift, and a vision for global sustainability pletely absent from the Millennium will follow. Mike Van Graan challenges Development Goals. The campaign’s ‘advocates of development’ who propose mission was to see culture recognised outcomes and strategies devoid of culture as a central mechanism in the 2015 and ‘fail to recognise that their vision of Sustainable Development Goals development… is itself rooted in particular cultural paradigms’. • The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management • In March 2015, the United Cities and (CIWEM) developed their leading Local Governments network (UCLG) strategic programme on Arts and held a world summit on Culture and the Environment in 2007, leading Sustainable Cities, launching ‘Culture to the formation of the Arts and 21 – Actions’. With a delegation of Environment Network. Focused spe- municipal and local governments cifically on leading and influencing it presented a forum honestly and national policy conversations, and accurately of the role of culture in con- building relationships to meet the arts temporary society, highlighting the and environment agenda. Outlined interdependent relationship between in the Policy Position Statement, citizenship, culture and sustainable CIWEM share a pioneering vision development. Superseding the 2004 to promote creativity at the heart ‘Agenda21 for Culture – Culture of environmental policy and action, as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable and advocate for a ‘whole systems’ Development’, ‘Actions’ outlines nine approach based on the interdepend- commitments to represent the cul- ence of natural, socioeconomic and tural dimension of a sustainable city, cultural values. including governance of culture, deci- sion-making and public policy; culture and education, expanding opportuni- ties for expression; culture, equal- ity and social inclusion to develop welfare, health and self esteem; and, prominently, culture and environment to raise awareness and promote sus- tainable practice.

• The campaign ‘The Future We Want Includes Culture’ was launched by a number of international networks including IFACCA, the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity and Culture Action Europe, as well as those listed in the footnote1. It was written in anticipation of the United Nations General Assembly

1 Agenda 21 for Culture, UCLG’s Committee on Culture; Arterial Network; Culture Action Europe; ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites; IFACCA, International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies; IFCCD, the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity ; IMC, the International Music Council; RED Latinoamericana de Arte y Transformación Social

22

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

04. guest contributions

• Striving for meaningful impact - Chantal Bilodeau

The question of impact in the arts is a vexing one. Not only is impact difficult to define, it is almost impossible to quantify. Talking about impact can create the expectation that the transaction between art and audi- ence is predictable and replicable. But it is not. Good art is unpredictable and unique, and its impact doesn’t translate neatly into a spreadsheet. As a young playwright, I used to think that impact was measured by the size of the audience: How many people Sophorl Ngin, Reneltta Arluk and Nael Nacer in the Underground Railway Theater bought tickets? Eventually, I came to real- production of ‘Sila’. Copyright: A.R. Sinclair Photography. ise that this view was reductive. By focus- ing on numbers alone, I was overlooking smaller, subtler clues that revealed a much more profound and, I suspect, more lasting, impact. After the artists, the next group to expe- I can encourage people to move one step: rience a work of art is the audience. In to the adjacent category in the pie chart. Four groups, organised in concentric cir- this case, numbers do tell a story. But by Perhaps someone who doesn’t believe cles from smallest to biggest, are invited themselves, they don’t tell the whole story. in climate change will be open to hearing to experience the impacts of a work of art: Numbers are a reflection of interest, not more about it. Or perhaps someone who the artist(s), the audience, the field, and impact. Impact happens later, in the privacy already believes will be inspired to take a the larger community. In the theatre, many of one’s home. It happens a day, a week or more active role. That is impact. artists – actors, directors, dramaturgs and even a year after encountering the work. designers, to name a few – are involved in And it is subtle. A friend once explained to Beyond the immediate transaction the production of a play. Therefore, before me that political campaigns divide voters between artist and audience, the third the work is shared with an audience, it has into categories: building a pie chart that group that can potentially be impacted the potential to affect many people. This separates groups into their political incli- by a work of art is the field. Every play is became apparent to me when I was working nations. The categories go from far left part of an ongoing conversation with the on productions on my play ‘Sila’ in 2014 and to far right, with a number of variations in entire theatre community. As such, every 2015. Set in the territory of Nunavut, ‘Sila between. The goal of the campaign is not play has the power to influence the next ‘examines the impact of climate change on to convince voters on the right to vote for play – to expand our ideas about process, the Canadian Arctic and local Inuit popula- the left, or vice versa. The goal is to move form, aesthetic and ideology, and to shine a tion. As the themes from the play emerged voters to the adjacent category in the chart. light on a conversation that may be missing through the rehearsal process, actors and To affect one small, incremental change. from the stage. In collaboration with three directors became more attuned to the colleagues, I am currently working on a pro- reality of climate change, dramaturgs for- My plays focus on climate change. It would ject called ‘Climate Change Theatre Action’ mulated new research topics, and design- be tempting to think that impact means (CCTA) in support of the United Nations ers developed an interest in sustainability. turning non-believers into activists. Or 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21). That is impact. believers into fanatics. But that is unrealis- CCTA is a series of worldwide readings and tic. Art opens up a space for conversation; performances intended to bring aware- it doesn’t, or shouldn’t, relentlessly push ness to, and foster discussion around, cli- an agenda. We have to meet people where mate change in November and December they are, and allow them to take their own 2015. As I write this, over a hundred events journey, at their own pace. At best, I hope have been scheduled in more than twenty

23

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

countries. Many of these events are inti- local environmental organisations. In is, the better our chances of creating the mate; they are taking place in classrooms 2014, excerpts of Sila served as the key- sustainable culture we desperately need or rehearsal studios, with only a handful of note for the conference ‘Warming Arctic: to ensure our survival. people in attendance. But the conversation Development, Stewardship, Science’ at within the theatre community is far-reach- Tufts University. The play introduced the ing. Already, the project has shown that it topics that were going to be discussed is possible to address climate change with- during the conference, but framed them out sacrificing artistic integrity; that local within very personal narratives. It set a action can translate into a global movement different tone for the conference and chal- and that the theatre is a powerful tool for lenged scientists and policymakers to think social change. There is talk of making this beyond numbers. It also created a dialogue an annual event. between science, policy and the arts.

CCTA also creates community. Fifty play- The same is true for the CCTA project. wrights wrote fifty shorts plays that were For one of the events in New York City, made available to collaborators world- we invited a NASA climate scientist to wide. For each event, collaborators select talk about COP21 and the role of narra- the plays they want to present and send tive in effecting social change. A dance us the list. We publicize this information company in Brooklyn, New York, invited on social media and connect collaborators a representative from the local chapter with playwrights, and other collaborators. of the international organization 350.org In addition to the local conversation hap- to talk about their current initiatives. And pening around each event, a greater con- various universities are incorporating their versation is taking place across time zones CCTA event into a larger conference that between artists who have never met. Plays includes earth and social science, or in one adapted into short films in California are case, leaders from three different faiths. being screened in Germany and India. This kind of cross-pollination promotes a Playwrights in the US are reading their better understanding of how people from plays live on Skype for events in Australia. different disciplines are tackling climate And so on. Some of these relationships may change, and how we can best support outlive the project and lead to more collab- global efforts. It also creates a model for orations. Some of these events may inspire the kind of cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural other organizations to do similar events. collaboration that is possible in dealing with That is impact. this global issue. That is impact.

Finally, the biggest of the four concentric Increasing self-awareness and affecting circles is the larger community. Typically, social change on a global level won’t hap- this is not a group we are accustomed pen overnight. It is unlikely someone will to think about. I certainly wasn’t until I walk out of a play, sell his or her car, and started focusing on climate change. Yet sign up to Greenpeace. We do ourselves to achieve maximum impact, conversa- a disservice when we look for immedi- tions have to transcend the walls of the ate impacts based on metrics. From time theatre. With my play Sila, and the other immemorial, the role of the arts has been seven plays of ‘The Arctic Cycle’, I strive to create the narrative that holds culture to bring together people who may not together. Rewriting that narrative won’t normally encounter each other. I hope to be easy. It is without a doubt the biggest, build bridges between disciplines – sci- most fundamental shift humankind has ence, policy, technology, humanities, and ever had to make. Our job then is to cele- the arts. This means presenting the play in brate every small step along the way. Our non-traditional settings such as academic job is to recognize that there is potential conferences, scientific institutions, or uni- for impact in every idea, every interaction, versity classes. It also means collaborating every performance, no matter how modest. with earth and social scientists early in the Spreadsheets may lure us into thinking we process, inviting community stakeholders are doing important work. But the faster to participate in talkbacks, and engaging we learn to see where meaningful impact

24

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• Community and Art as a way towards ecological sustainability - Marco Kusumawijaya

We are facing an environmental crisis. There has to be a new opportunity for com- munities to find alternative ways of living towards ecological sustainability – inviting critique of the state, market and desire, while also nurturing an ambition of society to go beyond mere development.

By community I want to focus on groups of people sharing relatively small geo- graphical territories, living everyday life in common environments, sharing resources and feeling the effects immediately when something goes wrong. I exclude from this definition ‘community of practice’, ‘imagined community’ (nation-state as in Benedict Neighbour children making theatre with a resident artist, November 2015. Pciture: Anderson’s), ‘institutional communities’ Kenichiro Egami. such as European, ASEAN1 and other inter- national associations of States.

Collaborative works made with communi- ties reflect their environment, ranging from sustainable approach must be (re-)discov- but there are persistent threats to common the imperfections of the State and market ered or (re-)constructed in this social con- attitudes and approaches. It is urgent that a they live in to internal questions of ambi- text. Community provides change with a via- community also critiques itself, including its tion and desire, inviting critique even of ble route to scale. At Bumi Pemuda Rahayu, modes of consumption and production that the community itself. Through this process a sustainability learning centre in the south contribute to environmental degradation communities are encouraged to criticise of Yogyakarta (Java island, Indonesia), we and harmful processes. and challenge, and through so doing, pro- negotiate with our neighbours to replace duce alternative concepts and actions. wood with bamboo in building, construc- A city is more connected to its people as tion and furniture. We organise regular a local-community than on the level of a Community can undoubtedly play a role workshops with a Japanese bamboo mas- nation state, where the majority of intru- in challenging everyday practice, from ter craftsman, Takayuki Shimizu, to weave sion, encroachment and transfer of the excessive consumption, to ideologies and bamboo containers for daily use, using rap- commons into public or private properties approaches of environmentally sustainable idly renewable materials that are also aes- take place. This in turn weakens urban com- production. Conceptualising and practicing thetically desirable. We work with neigh- munities like cities. In post-colonial states everyday life that builds more commons bours in the community to rediscover old ‘nationisation’ (the process of becoming within specific and bounded communities menus, using locally grown produce and a nation) and modernisation brought obviously provokes a question about action encouraging cooking without MSG and together rapid urbanisation. Conflicts in numbers: How can communities be palm oil ingredients. between different approaches to housing modern, egalitarian, democratic, and offer and urban developments are witnessed emancipation simultaneously? Small communities like ours can, through across the world because of that process. a process of dialogue and open communi- Privatisation has significant effects on com- We already see a consensus for an ecolog- cation, act as a moderating voice, helping munities experiencing poverty. Diversity ical transition. Sustainable change must to consider if there is a sustainable alter- and creativity in local communities are often occur among individuals, but it will never native. Community can be a meaningful homogenised by governments towards one amount to sufficient action if sustainability critique of consumption and production single facet or approach. These tensions does not pervade communities. Changes when it also comes to desire and ambition. reflect the distance between communities need to be tested out and rooted at the in practice and nation states champion- level of ‘living together’. An environmentally A community provides a shared environ- ing the common interest. The successful ment for common goods and narratives, environmental conservation programmes 1 Association of Southeast Asian Nations

25

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

in Indonesia evidence a common interest After three full years, the Bumi Pemuda between community and state. The local Rahayu sustainability learning centre has community enjoys freedoms around auton- faced many difficulties in terms of funding, omy, care and critique – encouraged and programming and administration. So far facilitated the conservation programme, our impact has been minimal, but we do not which cannot be effectively maintained by know whether this is conducive of failure, the state. or if it is the difficulty in measuring impact. The approach is likely to cultivate more Indonesian artists have been working with long-term change. We will keep experi- communities to share ideas and approaches menting while increasing our sensitivity to together. Taring Padi has worked with farm- detect signs for improvements and overall ers, Komunitas Lima Gunung revitalises evaluation. We are also still developing our indigenous language performances with approach to evaluation to record impact, fresh compositions and Jatiwangi Arts and effect on community and the environ- Factory brings contemporary arts into a ment – change and recovery towards sus- semi-rural community. Some artistic inter- tainability. It is important to look closely at ventions encourage community members what the neighbours involved have gained. to become artistic collaborators them- Our future vision includes a school that selves. Others engage communities as arti- combines critical thinking, coproduction of sans or skilled workers. All are welcomed knowledge and skills, and practical works as audiences. We have also seen ad hoc with hands and soils. In the future there will alliances between artist and community be triennial festivals of ecological arts, and to stage work on certain issues or societal more works on renewable materials such events that affect the local environment. as bamboo, wood and others.

The Bumi Pemuda Rahayu sustainability learning centre1 recognises two basic ideas. The first is about process: changes towards sustainability need to be creative and inno- vative, based on consensus and conversa- tion in people’s own language. They should not be simplistic and imposing. The second is about the environment: changes must be tested in, and supported by, commu- nities on a manageable scale. Underlining this approach is the common ownership of change. Recognising discoveries and inventions that might be replicated to encourage a pluralised effect: bigger than the individual. The Bumi Pemuda Rahayu residency programme invites creative professionals to experience communities first-hand, and through this experience to feel challenged by issues, to create and be changed. The residents are encouraged to work with neighbours. The centre is located in a semi-rural neighbourhood, with great potential to develop and some small problems to address. For the neighbours, they can experience art through direct engagement as a method of investigation and reflection.

1 Bumi Pemuda Rahayu (www.facebook.com/bumipemuda- rahayu) is co-founded and -managed by three partners: Kunci Cultural Studies Center, Arkom Yogya and Rujak Centre for Urban Studies.

26

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• The cultural dimension of environmental sustainability - Mike van Graan

2015 marks the deadline for the achieve- ment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000. The 8-point MDG programme has been supplanted by the more expansive 17-point Sustainable Development Goals, now setting the ambi- tious international development agenda for the next decade-and-a-half.

Yet, while climate change (SDG 13), the environment (SDGs 14 and 15) and con- sumption and production patterns related to these (SDG 12) are addressed in the SDG programme, culture as a transversal factor that impacts on these – as well as other SDGs – has been ignored. Conversely, the Art from plastic bottles (source: Such Initiative) setting and pursuit of the SDGs and their impact on culture, has hardly been an issue for the political decision-makers notwith- standing the advocacy efforts of interna- tional arts and culture entities such as the ‘Despite the progress achieved, the results individual richness, greater respect for International Federation of Arts Councils of the first two International Development the natural environment as the source of and Culture Agencies (IFACCA), Arterial Decades revealed the limitations of a well-being and sufficiency for everyone, Network, the International Federation of development concept based primarily on rather than wasteful consumption and Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD), quantitative and material growth. From environmental degradation in the pursuit United Cities and Local Governments 1970 onwards, critical reflection gave rise of maximum wealth creation for company (UCLG) Agenda 21 for Culture and the to the Intergovernmental Conferences shareholders. International Music Council. on Cultural Policies…in all parts of the world, and finally led to the Mexico City In short, there was, and remains conflict Inevitably then, in fifteen years’ time when Conference of 1982 to put forward with in culture, in the belief and value systems, the achievements of the SDG agenda are great conviction the idea that ‘culture con- that shape how different societies relate being evaluated, whatever has been gained stitutes a fundamental part of the life of to their natural environment, to wealth will be questionable in terms of its sustain- each individual and of each community… accumulation and to each other. It is for ability, unless it has taken cognizance of, and development…whose ultimate aims this reason that UNESCO emphasized the and has been rooted in the belief systems, should be focused on man (sic)…must cultural – rather than simply the economic values, traditions and worldviews – in short, therefore have a cultural dimension..’1 – dimension of development. the culture – of the intended beneficiaries of these SDGs. In order for development In the wake of numerous countries achiev- In his book, ‘Tradition, culture and devel- to be sustainable, it requires its benefi- ing political independence after the Second opment in Africa’, Dr Ambe J. Njoh writes: ciaries to believe in it, in the intended out- World War, models of economic develop- comes and in the strategies to achieve such ment – based on the pursuit of individual ‘On the eve of independence for most development. wealth, the rapid exploitation of natural African countries in the 1950s, devel- resources and consumerist values to cre- opment economists and international Yet, it would seem that we are less likely to ate need – and that worked in western development agencies were beginning learn from history, than to repeat it. societies were introduced to these coun- to seriously contemplate the necessary tries where the value systems may have strategies for facilitating development in UNESCO declared 1988-1997 the World been quite different, emphasizing, for the emerging nations….As the 60s drew Decade for Cultural Development explain- example, communal well-being rather than to a close, some dissenting voices could be ing the rationale thus: heard in the development economic com-

1 UNESCO’s Practical Guide to the World Decade for munity. These voices…began to question Cultural Development, 1987

27

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

the sagacity of defining the concept of their good intentions – is itself rooted in government – and indeed, national – levels, development in strictly in economic terms.’ particular cultural paradigms. to educate decision-makers and the public at large about the importance of the rela- Njoh criticised leading development econ- ‘The spiritual-environmental world view tionship between environmental sustaina- omists in the late 1950s and 1960s ‘who held by Pueblo Indians is vastly different bility, development and culture. considered the cultural transformation of from that held by non-indigenous, Western Africa and other developing regions as a people who view nature as something sep- To this end, an initiative that arose out of prerequisite for economic development. arate from themselves. The natural world COP17 when it was held in Durban – Don’t For these economists…the customs and is seen as an adversarial force, something Cop Out, Cop Art – bears witness to the traditional practices of non-western socie- to control and conquer. This belief system education being done in this regard. The ties constitute a hurdle to so-called modern leads to the depletion of natural resources Climate Train hosted a variety of projects, development aspirations.’ as more and more is taken from the natu- including an environmental and land artist ral world. As a consequence, species are who developed monuments and sculptures Njoh refers to the work of a leading devel- endangered and lost at an alarming rate.’1 out of found objects along the train’s route, opmental theorist, Sorenson who summa- with the local communities; a spoken word rised the ‘popular theory that underde- It is because of this vastly different under- artists who raised awareness of climate velopment in third world societies such standing of nature, that western forms of change in Africa through her poetry, and as Africa is due to internal as opposed to economic development, now adopted glob- a collective engaged in ‘guerilla gardening’ external factors’ thus: ally, have led to climate change, to environ- transforming lifeless, dull public spaces mental degradation and to changes in the into beautiful indigenous gardens along Basically, the theory holds that so-called relationship between nature and commu- the route of the train. traditional societies…are underdeveloped nities in many parts of the world. because of a lack of important propellants The use of waste materials to create art of development, including a work ethic, While in recent times the potentially – both conventional gallery art and pub- morals, innovative and entrepreneurial adverse impacts of development on the lic art – is also a popular way of raising capacity, free market mechanisms, a pro- environment have been recognized with awareness among the public about issues pensity for taking risks and organisational the introduction of environmental impact of consumption and waste and their envi- acumen. The absence of these factors, studies to ascertain and mitigate such ronmental impacts. Mbongani Buthelezi according to the theory, is itself a function adverse effects, the same has not been has achieved fame for his technique using of flaws in the culture, customs and social done for culture. Culture, the natural discarded plastic to create portraits that mores of traditional societies. Particularly environment, economic development and appear to be paintings or pencil drawings. noteworthy in this latter respect is the social and human well-being are not sepa- The Such Initiative, led by artists Hannelie fact that the theory considers the leading rate silos, but are fundamentally integral to Coetzee and Usha Seejarim, create large- cause of underdevelopment in so-called each other. scale public art using recyclable materials traditional societies as the fact that such such as their award-winning plastic bottle societies tend to place a lot of emphasis on Rather than separate cultural impact, top mosaic tapestry. kinship and family rather than on individual studies being done in anticipation of devel- success and little or no emphasis on sophis- opment, future development outcomes While these initiatives are encouraging, ticated technology and the acquisition of and strategies, in order to be sustainable and many others like them taking place at a material wealth. and have maximum positive benefit, must local, grassroots level, there is much advo- take seriously the potential environmental cacy work to be done on the global stage Those subscribing to this theory – says and cultural impact, and related factors, and at national levels to convince deci- Njoh – ‘suggested that it was impossible into account. In this regard, the recently sion-makers of the links between devel- for Africa to develop without abandon- created Toolkit of Culture 21 Actions by opment, environmental sustainability and ing its traditional practices and assuming Agenda 21 of the United Cities and Local culture. Eurocentric cultural values, beliefs and Governments (UCLG) that reflects on the ideology.’ integration of cultural aspects into sus- tainable development strategies at a local Notwithstanding these decades-old analy- level, is an excellent start. Interestingly, a ses and insights, advocates of development global survey using this toolkit revealed continue to propose outcomes and strate- that ‘culture and the environment’ as a gies that not only take little cognizance of theme received the lowest score, indicating the culture of the supposed beneficiaries of that much work needs to be done at local development, but fail to recognize that their 1 Becker, L., Becker, N. ‘Sacred Sites International Foundation’, version of development – notwithstanding excerpt from Abstract for a UNESCO Symposium on cultural diversity and biological diversity, Paris, 1998

28

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• Prefiguring Sustainability: unfortunate image of ‘pillars’ of sustaina- common resources). The personal dimen- Response-Ability & bility1), but seeing the personal, the social, sion points to individual self-development Spaces of Possibility - economic, political, cultural and ecological and fulfillment. Sacha Kagan realities as different levels, dimensions of worlds (or interrelated ecologies, as Arts organisations therefore need to We must stop thinking and working in Felix Guattari famously suggested2). develop an integrated understanding of silos – and in terms of so-called ‘pillars’ of Sustainability is not a fixed normative pic- these contexts for their work: sustainability (whether the environmental, ture, like a fixed model or template. Because economic, social or cultural ‘pillar’), repro- reality is complex, changing and contextual, • Sound practices of environmental ducing and perpetuating the failed mental sustainability too is a constantly changing management models that brought us where we are. In the horizon, a search process that constantly • Practices that open up to all layers of following lines, I suggest an engagement needs to be revised and critically reviewed. society, including marginalised minor- for arts organisations, which is not merely Sustainability as a search process seeks no ities and those seeking social justice about sustainability awareness-raising universal, but transversal properties that • Enlivenment of the cultural dimension (with a narrow focus on the environmen- allow trans-local exchanges and transla- • Personal fulfillment of employees, vol- tal as a separate concern), nor just about tions, thanks to inter- and transcultural unteers, partners and audiences environmental management within arts learning. • Practices which are economically organisations, however urgent and useful viable for oneself and for others, also such approaches are. Sustainability is about This is not to say that the dimensions are questioning the typical economic reinventing worlds; it is a cultural project. only instrumental to each other. The four self-exploitation of the creative sector Cultural (and arts) organisations are bear- or five dimensions of sustainability each ers of ‘spaces of possibilities’ towards hold intrinsic value and point to specific As cultural organisations, arts organi- sustainable futures. This is not just about goals. The ecological dimension is founda- sations deal, more explicitly than other professional artists (who of course can be tional upon which everything else is built, organisations, with the structures of mean- very inspiring initiators), or about artists and points us to the existence-value (and ings that we find and that we shape in the in social practice and communities (also not only use-value) of many forms of life world around us: the worldviews that we playing essential roles), but it is also about than constitute ecosystems around us and hold, the values that we cherish and that sharing response-ability for more diffused often together with us, whether in cities, in we practice, and things that are speaking artful doing and learning by local commu- rural areas or in more-or-less wild areas. back to us. Arts organisations contribute to nities in spaces of challenging experience, The social dimension points to the imper- the changes in the symbolic universe that imagination and experimentation. ative of justice, for all groups in a society, we build and inhabit, and which is full of which means developing a dynamic aware- sensory realities, sights and sounds, smells Arts organisations and sustainability as an ness to the situations of any marginalised and tastes, sensations and movements. integrated multi-dimensional search process group and to the dynamics of injustice. The Engaging with culture, as an arts organi- cultural dimension points to the value of sation means playing an important role in Arts organisations (like any human organi- culture, the vitality of cultural and artistic society, contributing to shape the systems sations) work in complex and rapidly chang- expressions and their diversity, allowing a of meanings in that society. This does have ing environments – or rather than ‘environ- rich cultural life, guarding against cultural long-term impacts. Arts organisations thus ments’, we should rather say in unfolding homogenisation, and linking a living cultural have a special responsibility towards the ‘worlds’, co-evolving with the organisation. heritage to cultural change. The economic cultural dimension of sustainability – in the These worlds are multi-dimensional: phys- dimension seeks economic viability, not only sense of ‘cultural sustainability’. ical, ecological, social, economic, political, of the arts organisation itself, but also of historical and cultural. Worlds are made other organisations and agents with which Cultures are also a fundamental key in of dynamic encounters of things, people, the organisation is related. The economic the search process of sustainability, when other living beings, places and times... many dimension of sustainability points to the looking at all dimensions of sustainability of these are related to each other in spe- question of desirable and sufficient wealth together, in an integrated way – in the sense cific, multiple ways – even though it is a lazy and well-being, which often can be achieved of ‘cultures of sustainability’. There will not and dangerous simplification to just claim through diverse forms of mixed economies be a shift of civilisation towards sustainabil- that ‘everything is related to everything ([1] market, [2] public, [3] gift, and [4] an ity without a fundamental shift in contem- else’. economy of the commons, through shared porary culture, towards an aesthetically community and stewardship of available grounded understanding and respect for Sustainability is a normative search pro- life in all its human and other-than-human cess which aims to address these worlds 1 Dessein, J., Soini, K., Fairclough, G., and Horlings, L. (Eds.). complexity. ‘Culture in, for and as Sustainable Development. Conclusions from as a whole – not seeing them as a collec- the COST Action IS1007 Investigating Cultural Sustainability’, tion of separate domains (with the very University of Jyväskylä, 2015. 2 Felix Guattari. ‘Les trois écologies’, Paris: Galilée, 1989.

29

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

This means, for the arts organisation, to who do walk into the theatre. For example, Arts organisations need to develop enrich the symbolic universe which is the multicultural appeal of arts organisa- qualitative performance indicators that attached to the local realities – a kind of tions is often still lacking (in some cases address the multiple dimensions of sus- ‘enlightened localism’ (as discussed by even despite genuinely emerging efforts). tainability, and that can give a meaning- Manickam Nadarajah1) and to enrich the ful feedback about the effectiveness and symbolic universe which is attached to The response-abilities of arts organisations the limits of the work done so far. One global realities, at the level of the whole are not, however, limited to engaging with attempt to develop such a tool emerged planet – a kind of planetary consciousness immediate situations. They are relating in Canada: Douglas Worts and his col- of humanity as a species (as discussed by to historical heritage as well as to future leagues developed a few years ago a set Edgar Morin2). It also implies not only generations. Furthermore, sustainability of qualitative performance indicators for the development of certain ethical values also calls attention to our community with self-assessment by museums, called the (beyond a simplistic green moralism), but non-humans. For example, the local ecosys- ‘Critical Assessment Framework’, which also the enrichment and diversification of tem of the river that flows through a city focuses especially on the levels of individ- our skills, competences and ways of know- demands to be attended to, not only in very uals (visitors and non-visitors), communi- ing reality. concrete terms (with art managers imple- ties (locally) and the museum (the staff and menting good practice in environmental volunteers at the own organisation). As Constituencies and response-ability management), but also in symbolic terms Douglas Worts himself argued meanwhile, (e.g. the symbolic relationships of the city such an evaluation framework would need Sustainability is a normative search pro- to its river and to the river’s ecosystem). further expansion, to also include relations cess, questioning society, not just looking with other organisations, as well as the at the world around and describing it with The constituencies also include humans ecology and society of whole regions and a detached gaze. It requires that the arts and non-humans that are far away from the entire planet. organisations develop a ‘response-ability’, the local environment of an arts organi- an ability to respond to issues of unsus- zation. Whether for geopolitical reasons Grounding spaces of possibility in artistic tainability. This means first of all, an ability – if we think of the Syrian refugees, who in inquiry to respond to the multiple constituencies Europe were long felt as ‘far away’ by many, inhabiting the immediate environment as until the reality-check came closer to home, Thanks to artistic openness, to the new and well as the rest of the world. revealing the un-reflected selfishness of to continuous learning, arts organisations many Europeans; or if we think of LGBTQI have a great potential to become not only To be able to respond to constituencies and people who are persecuted in Uganda, learning organisations (i.e. organisations the issues they face, arts organisations first Russia and too many other countries – that are continuously learning and evolv- have to recognise all their constituencies or for global ecological reasons, when ing, developing themselves), but also open and to acknowledge them. We can visual- we refer to climate change and the many learning spaces for others. ize such constituencies along three axes of communities affected worldwide. Any arts space, time and otherness: organisation needs to address the issues This potential needs to be tapped into. related to our global interconnections, and Sustainable development requires trans- • One axis goes from the local level to planetary responsibilities as one fast-grow- versal, creative ideas and approaches to the planetary level... ing species on this planet. new questions facing society. This is where • A second axis goes from the long dead artists come to the forefront. A growing to the not-yet-born... If arts organisations aim to seriously relate number of artists are dealing with issues • A third axis goes from the human to to these diverse constituencies (as some of social, economic, political, intercultural the many others (that is, non-humans). are already doing), and to have cultural and/or ecological natures (as I discussed impacts, they need to further develop their in the book ‘Art and Sustainability3’), which Some arts organisations may still fail to approaches and formats to enhance their all can shed new lights on questions of engage all of the local human constituen- response-ability to this world. This asks sustainable development. The role of the cies: for example, among the inhabitants of an arts administrator or manager to think arts organisation, in this process, is to a city, many non-visitors may be considered beyond existing ‘performance indicators’ accompany, support and foster such artis- a ‘lost cause’ by certain arts organisations. and develop new ones. This requires crea- tic inquiries. It is to provide a space of free Sustainability requires to seriously engage tivity and a qualitative turn, looking beyond play that artists need in order to be able to with the diversity of local communities the existing, mostly quantitative, indicators share their inquiries with others. But it is rather than stick to the niche audiences about revenues, attendance numbers, etc. also to challenge and stimulate artists to further develop and realize their perspec- 1 Nadarajah, M., Tomoko Yamamoto, A. (Eds.). ‘Urban crisis: tives in relation to the locality where the art Culture and the sustainability of cities’, Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2007. organisation is placed. 2 Morin, E. ‘L’an I de l’ère écologique’, Paris: Tallandier, 2007. 3 Kagan, S. ‘Art and Sustainability: Connecting patterns for a See also: Morin, E. ‘La méthode’, Paris: Seuil, 2008. culture of complexity’, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2011.

30

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

As many arts organisations are well versed in, artists can bring perspectives that help develop critical reflexivity in society (when they are not content with playing within the sandbox of the art worlds):

• They can make us become aware of routines, social conventions, hab- its and other aspects of our lives, of which we are barely aware (or fully unaware). They can warm them and invite us to try out alternatives.

• They can shape new aesthetic expe- riences that open up our perception to the intricate complexity of our envi- ronment, while making it accessible. They can shape symbols and reshape the symbolic values of any aspect of everyday life. This symbolic work is very important for cultural change. The ‘Tag des guten Lebens’ in Cologne, is not only a yearly car-free-Sunday festival with 100 000 visitors, but a space of possibility where thousands of residents in • They can help us engage in new situ- many streets develop own creative re-appropriations of urban space (picture: Marén ations with an experimental attitude Wirths on Flickr). that is open to sensorial and intuitive knowledge, as well as to lateral think- ing (thinking in metaphors instead of thinking in a narrowly deductive way), and thinking by doing instead connect together the different challenging than performed as single art projects. They of first thinking and then doing1. All perspectives offered by different artists. are strategically deployed for the realisa- these qualities of ‘artful doing’ are tion of an archipelago of heterotopian not reserved to artists alone. They However, the constitution of spaces of possi- spaces – where we can concretely experi- can become contagious. bility for sustainable development requires ment potential futures without waiting for that arts organisations move beyond their others to do it for us. One example of such Through sharing these different reflexive own habitual spaces (both physically, an archipelago is in the city of Hamburg perspectives, the artists may be able to socially and metaphorically). To reach out (Germany), the Right to the City network provoke detachment from lazy thinking, to people who are not part of cultural elites (including the Gängeviertel, Keimzelle, enchantment to envision alternative reali- or of activist networks, these spaces have KEBAP, Planbude and other spaces and ties, and empowerment to experiment with to be located in institutionally still undeter- initiatives). change. These qualities of artistic inquiry, mined spaces, where creative experiments and the creative processes they awaken, and the everyday life of local inhabitants Spaces of possibility are actively networked should be at the core of the arts organisa- may come together, functioning as emer- with each other and with wider movements tion as an open learning space. gent open commons. This calls forward working towards emancipatory and ecolog- artistic and cultural interventions across ical goals (such as discussed for example in To be able to unfold these potentials for the urban fabric, beyond the spatial-tem- the ‘Convivialist Manifesto’2). These spaces change, artists need open frames that allow poral and conventional frameworks habit- offer civil society the opportunity to acti- for unplanned experiments and stimulate ually associated to existing cultural organi- vate change-agency and empowerment critical learning. The art manager’s role is sations and art worlds. by operationalising ‘prefigurative politics’ thus to open up these frames, allowing and – the immediate practical experimentation fostering these artistic reflexivities and In spaces of possibility, the qualities of artis- with desired future forms of social life, with- letting them flow through the arts organ- tic inquiry that I shortly listed above are out waiting for (necessary) transformed isation. The arts professionals can also embedded in local (often urban) initiatives, larger political and economic structures embedded in neighborhoods and aiming to allow the wider dissemination of such to transform everyday life while address- 1 Hans Dieleman, ‘Transdisciplinary Artful Doing in Spaces of Experimentation and Imagination’, in Transdisciplinary ing urban development and politics, rather 2 ‘Manifeste Convivialiste : declaration d’interdépendance’, Journal of Engineering and Science, Vol. 3, 2012, pp. 44-57. Lormont: Le bord de l’eau, 2013 - English version online

31

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

social innovations. Spaces of possibilities gospel of sustainability. The goal is to invite Engaging with the search process of sus- are ‘spaces of imagination and experimen- people to engage with situations and with tainability, arts organisations are challenged tation’, as coined by Hans Dieleman. their imaginations, without settling down to relate both to ‘cultural sustainability’ and too soon. to ‘cultures of sustainability’. Their poten- Art organisations can contribute to ground- tial contribution to the multiple dimensions ing spaces of possibility in artistic inquiry, This is about developing safe and trust-in- of sustainable development implies more by opening up spaces of challenging expe- spiring places that invite their visitors to a than mere environmental awareness rais- rience, imagination and experimentation. participation with consequences, not just ing and the necessary greening of creative Sustainability is a radical search process, some token or superficial participation. processes. Arts organisations have a role to it requires highly challenging (rather than These places need to foster a social crea- play in the wider diffusion of artful, aesthet- comfortable) aesthetic experiences, while tivity – a creativity that is no longer just the ically challenging and playfully experimen- at the same time such experiences should privilege of individual artists on stage – a tal practices and spaces in local communi- remain accessible to different participants. creativity that flows as a good conversa- ties (based in artistic inquiry, but reaching The same artistic proposal will be more or tion between friends. Participants need to beyond single arts projects), contributing less challenging, depending on the back- be stimulated to think and act differently, to the development of spaces of possibility, ground of each participant. How to avoid even if it feels silly. Creating that type of as prefigurative politics for sustainability merely providing comfortable aesthetic creative climate is also a real challenge for transformation2. satisfaction that maintains people in a state the arts organization. of uncritical anaesthesia (or offers pseu- do-challenges to blasé high-culture elites)? Finally, shaping spaces of possibility, as arts Spaces of possibility are not places for organisations, is like weaving a spider web, anaesthesia and political self-satisfaction. not alone but together with many other spiders from outside the cultural sec- Spaces of possibility unfold in thinking by tor – joining existing urban and regional doing. This is as if the artist, or other initia- cross-sector networks (such as ‘Transition’ tor, is inviting people to take a ride on a bike, or ‘Right to the City’ networks in differ- although they have not yet learned how to ent cities) and helping build new ones. ride a bike. The art organisation needs to Such networks involve a great diversity of develop safe places where participants can aspects and dimensions of economy, soci- feel enough trust to ‘take a ride’ in a situ- ety, ecology, culture and local everyday life. ation that is new and uncertain, and allow Sustainability implies moving away from themselves to experience surprise and con- thinking and acting within specific profes- fusion, and still be open to learn something sional fields. The work of such networks new out of it. is to engage each other into shared public discourses and to build a democratic space What I also mean concretely by experimen- together, to continue experimenting and tation is that art organisations can also offer connecting different experiences. There some hands-on activities that invite people can and should be tensions within such net- to experiment with doing things differently. works. It is actually deleterious to expect or It can be a workshop, a market, a big living enforce permanent consensus. A balance room or playroom set up in the middle of between collaboration and antagonism is the street, or many other things. It should much more sane, as long as the conver- invite people to bring together their heads, sations and web-spinning continue (in an their hearts and their hands. Invite people ‘agonistic’ democratic space as argued by to a place where they can test out things, Chantal Mouffe1). like acrobats walking on a rope with a safety net below them.

Imagination is important because spaces of possibility are about exploring multiple alternative realities and alternative futures. The goal is not to close down people’s imag- inations so that they “get it”, so that they get 2 The notion of ‘sustainability transformation’, which has the one correct image or interpretation. gained some popularity in the field of Sustainability Science, points to radical innovation towards sustainability, i.e. a more Arts organisations are no churches for a 1 Mouffe, C. ‘Agonistics. Thinking the world politically’, disruptive change than what was discussed in earlier sustain- London: Verso, 2013. ability discourses.

32

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

• The S-word -​ Yasmine Ostendorf

The arts and sustainability are no strangers to each other in Western Europe. For instance: since 2012 all cultural organisa- tions that receive regular funding from Arts Council England (NPO’s and MPM’s)1 are required to report on their environmen- tal impacts, using Julie’s Bicycle advanced carbon calculators (The Creative IG tools) that are made specifically for the cultural sector. This makes Arts Council England the first arts funding body in the world to recognise the environmental role the cul- tural field can play and to provide the ser- vices to the field to support the process of reducing its carbon emissions. Museums, theatres, festivals, tours, galleries, produc- tions, more and more cultural organisations are greening their practices and starting to understand their environmental impact. The IG tools help measure energy, water, waste, recycling, travel (audience, business touring), production materials and allow you to benchmark your organisational out- MOBILE HOUSE (Practice for a Revolution), Kyohei puts against other similar cultural organi- Sakaguchi 2012 (source: EU-Japan Fest) sations. The Tools currently have over 2200 users across 43 different countries. With arts funding drying out in Europe, more and more arts funding bodies are highly debatable APP (Asian Pulp and culture and heritage, and about sustain- looking at this pioneering collaboration. If Paper), but Asian artists were staying away ability. We see more people actively and not for the planet, for their pockets; Julie’s from terms as sustainability and climate passionately speaking up about say, conser- Bicycle’s recent mid-term report Sustaining change. Generally speaking sustainability vation issues rather than just leaving it to Great Art identifies a 6.3% decrease in car- is considered a Western word, a policy the government as in the past. There is also bon emissions in 2013/14 (compared to word, not having anything to do with the growing interest in the preservation of the 2012/13), representing a saving of 7,063 arts in Asia. Or even worse, the word is traditional arts because of how they speak tonnes CO2e or £1.25 million. used as the equivalent of the word expen- to who we are as a people and a nation’.3 sive. Artist Robert Zhao clarifies: ‘electric This more holistic approach to sustainabil- Taught to love and conditioned to use the cars are more expensive and organic food ity was central, not just in Singapore but in term sustainability I left London at the is more expensive’ – both are supposedly most other countries such as Indonesia, for beginning of 2015 to do research across the ‘sustainable alternative’2. instance. This approach relates not strictly different countries in Asia, interviewing to the natural environment but to tradition, artists, curators, cultural policymakers and At the National Arts Council in Singapore, each other, to the community and quality of academics about their struggles, challenges, Kenneth Kwok, Director (Arts & Youth and life (and food), without S-branding it. What ideals and ideas on ‘shaping more sustaina- Strategic Planning) explained how they the West has called Urban Farming, is what ble societies.’ Within the first week of inter- relate to sustainability not from a technical practically everyone in Korea has been views I had to ditch the word ‘sustainability’ but from a cultural heritage and conserva- doing forever with pots of chillies growing as it created a lot of confusion in my conver- tion point of view: ‘We’ve come very far as on every rooftop. No one would call that sations. I was lost in translation. Ironically a country and, increasingly, people are look- urban farming in Seoul. To start to under- the S-word was all over the websites of ing at other dimensions to their lives, the stand each other we need to understand companies such as the environmentally more intangible things that go beyond the the different rhetoric, interpretations, material. Singaporeans are becoming more vocal, for example, about the importance of

1 National Portfolio Organisations and Major Partner 3 Interview with Kenneth Kwok and Audrey Wong at the Museums 2 Interview with Robert Zhao on the 1st of May 2015 National Arts Council Singapore on 29 April 2015

33

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

understanding concepts as gotong roy- Instead of flying more, we need to to stay would only make a bump on your head even ong1, Transformaking2 or a kampong spirit3. longer, making our trips more valuable, when it collapses, instead of burying you to Especially in less developed countries there observing, learning, picking up local words, death’6. It was the starting point for Kyohei are often informal systems in place for eating the local dishes, understanding the Sakaguchi’s project ‘ZERO Re:public’, which recycling, saving energy or sharing leftover context and making new friends. To allow included launching a New Government. food, except these systems are not branded this, policies and funds need to be process This ‘New Government’ is not in resis- as being ‘sustainable or green’, it would just driven, instead of outcome driven. And this tance against the current government, but be very stupid to waste resources4. travel needs to happen two ways. In addi- co-exists in a different layer, where ‘sur- tion we have a whole range of modern tech- plus’ resources such as land and buildings The reality is that we are not facing the nologies that facilitate our keeping in touch are used. With ‘ZERO re:public’ Sakaguchi same sustainability challenges. When that we need to embrace (even) more. seeks clues for constructing an alternate typhoons or earthquakes are around the Skype meetings, e-learning platforms, system of living, challenging and question- corner, people are less likely to think about webinars; the digital shift has opened up a ing current conditions of labour, capital, the long term, as you don’t know what whole new area communication. However, resources and space. I was part of one of tomorrow will look like. Or, where a lot of even digital has an environmental dark side: his clues: the ZERO Hotel in Gwangju, a non-Western artists often still have mobil- by 2020 the carbon impact of digital will former goshiwon7 where instead of paying ity challenges such as visa issues, the ele- exceed the carbon impact of aviation. The with money for my accommodation, I had phant in the Western cultural sustainability digital industry as a whole currently con- to make up a currency. It was the first, but chamber is the exorbitant amount of fly- sumes two per cent of the world energy hopefully not the last time in my life I could ing. Flying is often part of the professional and will generate as much CO2 as the air- pay with curiosity. Next to the ZERO hotel, practice of a cultural operator: attending line industry within the next five years. This you could find ZERO squares for public conferences, Biennales, establishing inter- indicates the urgency for more research lectures, ZERO Immigration service (for national productions, all this traffic being a into renewable energy opportunities for new citizens of the new Government), a huge environmental burden. Even when in the digital industry, an area in which cur- ZERO artist’ residency and many other Europe the distances are relatively close rently North America is taking the lead. initiatives. All these places are free and and international train services are offered, breeding grounds to explore alternatives, budget flights are too tempting. They are And what is the responsibility of the art- share food, meet people or share knowl- the hamburgers of transport; you know ists? We just have to trust they will ask edge (at the Immigration Service I found a it’s a bad choice, but it’s cheap and quick. the right questions. Artists have a unique comprehensive map of where to find cheap In Asia distances are quite different and a ability to respond to society, which is their and great food in Gwangju). Kyohei is now lot of countries are peninsulas so a train artistic response-ability5. An example is the talking to local councils about introducing is often not an option, so people gener- work of Japanese artist Kyohei Sakaguchi. more ZERO centres. ally travel less. However, Low cost airline Studying architecture in the nineties he AirAsia (and other budget airlines) cre- was frustrated with the idea of having to We all have our part to play but we need ated a massive change and made flying in bring more buildings into this world, whilst to realise we are playing them in different the ASEAN region accessible to a lot more at the time there were six million empty theatres. We have different challenges, people over the last decade. houses and unused real estates in Japan. different resources, and we need to watch Instead of pursuing a career as an archi- each other and start understanding our tect he started investigating the life and different languages, - not just literally. We systems for survival of homeless people need to build solutions that speak to local

1 Gotong Royong refers to a collaborative approach, help- and was amazed with the creativity and audiences and environments; otherwise we ing each out your neighbours, the community. It originates from innovation he found along the bank of the remain lost in translation. Indonesia, where nationalism was on the rise after the Second Sumida River. An old man explained him World War. Indonesia’s first president Sukarno actively pursued the idea of gotong royong as an Indonesian way of life in a newly- how his house, built from scrap wood and ‘Creative responses to Sustainability’ independent nation. Gotong Royong is selfless and it contrib- a polytarp panel, could be disassembled by Country Guides are free to download at utes to a higher goal, the needs of society/the community and one person into three parts for easy trans- culture360.asef.org and supported by strengthens its cultural identity. portation and floated like a boat during high the Mondriaan Foundation and the Asia 2 Transformaking is a combination of the words transforma- tion and making, an ‘invention’ of the House of Natural Fibre water. He said: ‘There are so many earth- Europe Foundation (ASEF). (HONF) in Yogyakarta. The word is used at the summit HONF quakes in Japan. I don’t understand why organised in September 2015, bringing together hackers, mak- ers, scientists, artists and researchers to exchange ideas about people want to build such high buildings… transforming society. It’s best to live in a light weight house that 3 A term frequently used by Ground Up initiative in Singapore, which relates to the village (kampung) life. It refers 5 The word ‘response-ability’ is used here deliberately, as to sharing, trust, friendships and generosity. 6 Quoted as from Kyohei Sakaguchi’s article ‘Utopia at the originated by philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, and refers to hav- Riverbank’ published in Asia Culture Centre’s publication ‘The 4 ASEF’s Country Guides ‘Creative responses to ing a unique and creative ability to respond to something, this Book Whale’ Sustainability’ include a Glossary, collecting different local terms being the essence of the reasonable being. Levinas, E. ‘Totality that are used in relation to sustainability. and Infinity’, Duquesne University Press: Pittsburgh. 1961 7 Korean housing for students or people with low incomes

34

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

This sentiment is echoed in the recent pub- Ethics, of course, has a seat at this table, lication of the Arts Council Wales strategy and must be transparent and visible in the 05. for 2018, titled ‘Imagine’, where they are arts and environment debate. Unethical conclusions clear in their vision that ‘at its most basic, funding from sources that perpetuate dam- climate change and environmental pro- age to our ecosystem cannot be provided a The whole climate of thought will be different. In tection are amongst the most urgent and ‘licence to spill’, cleaning dirty reputations fact there will be no thought as we understand all-encompassing issues of our time. We (constructed on environmental damage, oil it now therefore need to understand the particu- spills and arctic drilling) by funding national George Orwell lar responsibilities that we have in the Arts, art institutions. and to help our sector to understand and Arts and environment, its parameters and address those issues’. ‘The answer to inequality, democratic margins, do not present a simple discus- disengagement and climate change is not sion. The big issue of climate change has an Art does not pretend to know the answers, simply more art’2. COP21, and similar nego- effect on all aspects of our decision-making, but it is fundamental in evoking the discus- tiations worldwide, are not an arts vacuum, a spectrum within which art is merely one sion, with audiences from all backgrounds but an opportunity for culture to influence facet. We must understand the fundamen- across the globe. Jay Griffiths described policy. How best practice in the arts and tal importance of finding environmentally artists as shape-shifters with a hope evidence of its impact can work beyond sustainable solutions to prolong massive which whispers of possibility, vision and immediate influence to play a bigger part in deterioration to our planet’s resources – a change and it is this characteristic that shaping discussion and behavioural change question that has perpetuated contempo- acknowledges the truth and severity of cli- is a question the sector must now consider. rary culture, from political point-scoring, mate change. The vision and energy of art- academic literature and Papal Encyclicals: ists outlined through this report seeks to ‘there can be no renewal of our relationship change the narrative, and evoke a change, with nature without a renewal of humanity a provocation in audiences. It includes itself’1. work that encourages discussion, work that reuses waste materials, work that To think, however, that environmental combines disciplines with food, nature and science and the arts are polarities is igno- physics, work that is built on sustainable rant to the nuances of this discussion: not principles, and activism that tackles the one that can be pinned down in a single ethics of funding. These are only part of report, but amassed through numerous the art and environment question, which is sources, artistic interventions, sustaina- changing and evolving rapidly. ble venues and activism across the world. Understanding art’s place in this paradigm Within this debate is the question about could (but by no means must) offer it a new how we communicate and how linked emo- role in the necessary culture shift we face tions are in creating behavioural changes to change attitudes. Art helps us to think, and actions. Art acts in this sphere by question and criticise the ‘big issues’ at the changing the narrative, moving away from heart of climate questions, communicate the important (but often, impenetrable) with a humanity and understanding. Our statistics, charts and figures, making this cultures allow identities and differences, instead a discussion about human beings, behaviours and challenges to be continu- questions of survival and compassion. It is ously redefined. In the way that one photo with people whom we identify. can change a narrative, so too can thea- tre or music communicate in a way that There is an obvious role to play for sus- resonates beyond the scientific core of a tainable practice and green business in the discussion. As physicist Max Planck put it, arts. Institutions that run using renewable ‘Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery energy sources, or integrate sustainability of nature because we ourselves are part of policies within their administration, offer nature and therefore part of the mystery an insight into best practice in improving we are trying to solve’. industry standards. Funding is an unavoid- able part of this paradigm. A perpetual cycle exists in arts and public funding, and alter- native sources are few and far between. 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/18/ 2 Tims, C., Wright, S. ‘The Invisible Hand. Art in the transition read-pope-franciss-full-document-on-climate-change/ to another economy’ IETM , 2013.

35

art for the planet’s sake fresh perspectives

www.ietm.org

Greenpeace, ‘Make IT Green: Cloud United Cities and Local Governments, Computing and its Contribution to Climate Culture Summit, ‘Culture and Sustainable 06. Change’ Cities Final Report’ resources IFACCA, D’Art Report 34, ‘The Arts UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 There is a wealth of resources, publications and Environmental Sustainability: An UN Development Agenda, ‘Culture: a driver and articles that develop the arts and envi- International Overview’ and an enabler of sustainable practice’ ronment question. Below is a selection of interesting literature that was used to Imagine2020, ‘THERE IS NOTHING THAT IETM’s Fresh Perspectives series - see IETM’s develop this publication, and will provide IS BEYOND OUR IMAGINATION’ publications you further reading to continue to find inspiration, question arts practice and make Julie’s Bicycle, ‘Practical Guide: change. Communicating Sustainability’

Artists and Climate Change: Contributions Julie’s Bicycle, ‘Fit for the Future Guide: from the artistic community in response to Investing in Environmentally Sustainable the questions of climate change. Buildings’

ASEF, Green Guide – Korea, launched 24 Julie’s Bicycle, ‘Practical Guide: Audience November 2015 Travel’

ASEF, Green Guide – Singapore, launched Julie’s Bicycle, ‘Practical Guide: Waste 3 December 2015 Management in Buildings’

ASEF, Connect2Culture, ‘Linking the Arts to Julie’s Bicycle, ‘Where Science Meets Art’ Environment & Sustainable Development’ Julie’s Bicycle, ‘Sustaining Great Art: Arts CERN, ‘Great Arts for Great Science’ (scroll Council Year Three Report’ until the bottom of the page - Press pack) Mel Evans, ‘ArtWash: Big Oil and the Arts’ Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), Naomi Klein, ‘This Changes Everything. ‘Policy Position Statement, Arts and the Capitalism vs The Climate’ Environment’ (browse under ‘Other topics’) Nesta, ‘Selling Sustainability’ Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal net- work, constituted of an international level Nesta, ‘Galvanising Community-led grounded in several Cultura21 organisa- Responses to Climate Change’ tions around the world. Ressource0: a resource platform on art, Culture(s) in Sustainable Futures – 2015: ecology and sustainable development, Conference and main outputs of the developed by COAL. process. TINFO, Theatre Info Finland, ‘TINFO News Emergence, ‘Culture Shift’ – Sustainability, Resilience and Performace Utopias’ European Cultural Foundation, Idea Camp United Cities and Local Governments, Green Art Lab Alliance, ‘A selection of Agenda21, ‘Culture – Actions’ funding opportunities for arts and cul- ture projects related to environmental United Cities and Local Governments, sustainability’ Agenda21 for Culture, ‘Culture as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development’

36

art for the planet’s sake