‘The relevance of sustainability for contemporary art can be approached from two distinct angles. On the one hand, we may consider the role of art in highlighting environmental issues, expressing criticism towards unsustainable factors in society, and offering imaginative ideas for how to achieve sustainability. The other approach is to turn eco-criticism back towards the art world itself, to examine the environmental impact of the production of art works, the functioning of art institutions, or, for example, the phenomenon of international art biennials that have mushroomed around the world in recent decades.’

See Translocal.org for more.

festival of not surviving
2012 nov dec 2013 jan
bristol

the meaning of life for individual human beings can be defined as:

‘compulsory individual survival, with optional social reproduction’

currently, humanity is faced with three simultaneous challenges, each of which alone is enough to end life as we know it:

1. energy crisis

since 1950′s, our societies have been based on cheap oil

this oil took 120 million years to create and 60 years to deplete

we reached peak cheap oil production in 2007 and (with careful management) will now return towards 1900 energy consumption levels (a contraction of a factor of 20)

careful management doesn’t appear to be in action though

2. economy

since the 1950′s, our societies have been based on cheap money

this money took thousands of years to create and 60 years to debase

we reached peak money value in 2007 and (with careful management) will now return towards 1960′s money value levels (a contraction of a factor of 25)

careful management doesn’t appear to be in action though

3. ecology

since 1950′s, our societies have been based on unsustainable resource extraction

if we ignore climate change, for us to return to sustainable relationship with nature (with careful management), the extinction rate should drop from 50,000 species to 5,000 species (a contraction of a factor of 10)

careful management doesn’t appear to be in action though

if we consider climate change, then we are facing an species extinction event (a contraction of a factor of at minimum 6)

extinction events occur in factors of roughly 60 million years

with these challenges combined, we are facing the extinction of the human species and any land mammal larger than a squirrel

individually, we generally die alone, but we are now facing the prospect of dieing with our species

the death of our species should be a moment of reflection and peace instead of delusion and panic

without a firm link to nature, our descent will be far from graceful

festival of not surviving intends to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to fully experience the death of themselves and their species

As in all areas, wind blows towards sustainability in art also. Thus a new concept was born: Sustainable Art. This concept consists of social justice, direct democracy and antiviolence in addition to environmental issues. We discussed the history, present and tomorrow of Sustainable Art with contemporary art historian and curator couple: Maja-Reuben Fowkes.

For the Turkish version click here, or for English follow the link below:

http://ekoiq.com/%E2%80%9Csurdurulebilir-sanat%E2%80%9D-degil-sanatin-surdurulebilirligi/2/

Noah Fischer and Maria Byck (Occupy Museums, New York)

SPEAKERS: Noah Fischer and Maria Byck (Occupy Museums, New York), Matteo Pasquinelli and Wietske Maas (urbanibalists, Berlin and Amsterdam), Emma Dowling (theorist and activist, London), Gabriella Csoszó (photographer/artist, Budapest), Tomas Rafa (filmmaker/artist, Bratislava), Tamara Steger (researcher, CEU Budapest) and Maja and Reuben Fowkes (translocal.org).

The upsurge of new popular movements from Egypt to Greece and Bucharest to New York has engendered an atmosphere of defiance and social creativity that has captured the global imagination. Beyond the ebb and flow of individual protest movements, this symposium asks whether global solidarity has really taken hold this time and considers the variety of ways in which contemporary art is embroiled through practices of dialogue and collaboration in the emergence of a common horizon and the imagining of a sustainable future. Providing a trans-disciplinary forum for discussion of the vital issues bridging the fields of art and environmental thought, the symposium sheds light on our understanding of the multifarious notion of sustainability, which appears by turns as a radical concept in global ecological thinking, can be recruited as a corporate strategy for green capitalism, and may act as a spur to new forms of social activism.

Speakers include artist-activists Noah Fischer and Maria Byck, who are members of the Occupy Museums Collective that protests against the domination of the interests of the 1% in the running of New York art institutions, as well as Berlin and Amsterdam-based urbanibalists Matteo Pasquinelli and Wietske Maas, who will present a radical manifesto of urban cannibalism that seeks to recover the spontaneous living matter of the city. Curators Maja and Reuben Fowkes explore the creation of liberated zones and the relevance of ecological thought to new protest movements, while activist and writer on affective labour Emma Dowling will reflect on the sustainability of the protest movement in the light of the spread of locally-organised occupations of public and private space. Tomas Rafa’s video archive of marches and counter-demonstrations illuminates the spectrum of contemporary protest, while researcher Tamara Steger and artist Gabriella Csoszó debate the representation of activism.

The symposium is organised by curators Maja and Reuben Fowkes (Translocal.org) in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and the Centre for Arts and Culture at Central European University (CEU).

For more information see:
www.translocal.org/sustainability

In many ways, the artistic debates prevalent in the 1970s are recurring in our time: the relation between art and ecology, the position of the artist within a information and media society and the crisis of (neo)liberalism. Although the societal context and diameters of these discussions have changed profoundly, their basis can be found in the period from 1965 to 1975, considered a paradigmatic shift in art and society. But how well do we actually know our immediate past and what can we learn from it? Smithson’s artistic heritage provides an interesting and relevant case study in this respect. Rethinking Robert Smithson aims to open up a discussion about current concerns in art and theory at the intersection of art historical debate and contemporary art practice. Along the line of two thematic approaches related to Smithson’s work, Art and Ecology and The Cinematic Condition, topical concerns in artistic practice are reconsidered by internationally renowned theorists and artists.

For more details see:
Rethinking Smithson Symposium

Following the success of the first Animal Gaze symposium three years ago, London Metropolitan University presents The Animal Gaze Returned – a second symposium on contemporary art and animal-human studies to take place 27-28 October 2011 at the university’s School of Fine Art, Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media & Design, in Whitechapel, London (UK).

“For me art is philosophy. My works are concerned with the connections between man, the earth, and the universe; between the existence of mankind and the inestimable age of the universe; human perceptions.” RÚRÍ

Coference Programme

8th of October 2011
UCL, London

The symposium proposes an exploration of artistic practices involved with animals and environments.  In the recent re-surfacing of the animal in contemporary art, emphasis has been given to mammals, mainly because of the most immediate relational opportunities that these animals offer to us.  However, a number of very interesting artists has been recently trying to bridge the abyss between ‘us’ and more ‘taxonomically remote’ creatures through the use of art and science as active interfaces.  This new focus reveals the interconnectedness between humans, amphibians, reptiles and insects, and the environments in which we all live.  Through a multidisciplinary approach, the symposium aims at facilitating a dialogue between artists, scientists and academics interested in informing wider audiences through visual communication.

Speakers Include: Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey / Ron Broglio / Maja and Reuben Fowkes /Rikke Hansen / London Fieldworks / Joyce Salisbury / Linda Williams

For tickets are further details see:
www.antennae.org.uk

The COAL Art & Environment prize was launched in 2010 by the French association COAL, the coalition for art and sustainable development, to reward a project about the environment by a contemporary artist.

For more details see:

http://www.projetcoal.org/coal/en/2011/03/22/concourir-au-prix-coal-2011/

Sacha Kagan. Art and Sustainability: Connecting Patterns for a Culture of Complexity. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2011.

The publication proposes an understanding of ‘culture(s) of sustainability’, ‘aesthetics of sustainability’ and ‘art and sustainability’,  based on an in-depth theoretical elaboration and a critical discussion of several artists.

http://www.cultura21.net/literature/publications/art-and-sustainability-connecting-patterns-for-a-culture-of-complexity/

The pattern of world environmental summits has been one of raised hopes for global action in tackling ecological crisis, followed by disillusionment as dominant political and economic interests reassert themselves to block radical change. Contemporary art’s recent enthusiasm for environmental questions, which peaked during the media hype preceding the Copenhagen Summit, has an instructive prehistory in the interconnection of art and ecology in the 1970s, with the 1972 Stockholm conference slogan ‘only one earth’ a powerful rallying call for artistic collaborations. In their talk at Muzeum Sztuki, art and sustainability theorists Maja and Reuben Fowkes explore the lessons of art’s engagement with ecology, from the first understanding of the crisis of human environment in the early 70s, to the global perspective ushered in by the end of the Cold War, with the popularisation of the idea of sustainable development at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the crystallisation of the debate between technocratic and radical approaches at the ill-fated Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009.

See  website

Sustainability has become a buzzword of politics and commerce, and with its spread from the field of environmentalism into society there has been some dilution of its radical implications. Ecological sustainability is also mentioned with increasing frequency in discussions of contemporary art and there is a parallel lack of awareness of the history of environmental thought, which in many accounts begins and ends with the early 60s classic of poetic, anti-pollution literature, The Silent Spring. If we begin with an understanding of sustainability derived from green capitalism, then the widespread belief amongst critical theorists that sustainability was invented by big corporations to create new markets for environmentally-friendly products seems a logical conclusion. Unravelling the confusion between ecological sustainability and greenwash, in other words between the solution and part of the problem, requires revisiting theoretical debates within the field of ecology, in order to open up our understanding of sustainability and its relevance for both society and contemporary art (full text here).

The event consisted of a series of critical conversations on issues of Art, Post-Fordism and Eco-Critique at the university, between  environmental scientist Ruben Mnatsakanian and Croatian artist Branka Cvjeticanin, Polish playwright and member of Krytyka Polityczna Igor Stokfiszewski and Hungarina artist Csaba Nemes and Paris-based theorist Stephen Wright and Austrian artist Ralo Mayer with an introduction to Art, Ecology and post-Fordism given by Maja and Reuben Fowkes of Translocal, and additional moderation from environmental philosopher Alan Watt.

On day two, the critical conversationalists were joined by Hungarian artist Tamas Kaszas and CEU students Lauren Othon-Buckley and Marianna Szczygielska for a trip to a mystery destination in the Hungarian puszta for discussion in depth of the issues at the heart of the symposium. The workshop was a great success, the setting providing plenty of inspiration for considering the effects of post-Fordism on all our professions and potential resistance strategies in art and life, and was documented for the future.

Into the Puszta

Post-Fordist spectacle at the Vorosmarty Tanya

Sunset on the puszta

The workshop participants

International Symposium at Central European University Budapest
19-20 March 2010

Ralo Mayer, Multiplex Fiction, 2008

This symposium focuses on the intersections between globalisation, ecology and contemporary art and examines the relevance of post-Fordist theory for both environmentalism and artistic practice.

The symposium is organised as a series of critical conversations between speakers from the fields of art, philosophy and environmental science that respond to urgent questions such as:

What is the way forward after the failure of the Copenhagen Summit and in the face of growing public scepticism about the science of climate change?
How has the spread of flexible post-Fordist practices effected the way artists, cultural producers, academics and environmentalists work?
How might artists develop ways to critique capitalism with an awareness of ecology and the complexity of globalisation?

With Stephen Wright (art theorist, Paris), Igor Stokfiszewski (curator/critic/playwright, Warsaw), Branka Cvjeticanin (multimedia artist, Zagreb), Ralo Mayer (artist, Vienna), Maja and Reuben Fowkes (Translocal.org), Ruben Mnatsakanian and Alan Watt (CEU Department of Environmental Science and Policy).

For more information see: www.translocal.org/sustainability

The 2010 Symposium on Sustainability and Contemporary Art brings together artists, philosophers, environmental scientists and activists to explore the conundrum of capitalism’s remarkable ability to absorb criticism and adapt to new circumstances. According to post-Fordist theory, in the wake of the social upheaval of May 1968 capitalism was able to recuperate radical desires for freedom, creativity and personal liberation through the adoption of the principles of flexibility, horizontality and autonomy, and the shift from industrialism to immaterial labour.

Today, the energy and idealism of the environmental movement is arguably in a similar danger of being transformed into the motor of a green capitalist resurgence that threatens to rescue neo-liberal globalisation from the economic downturn. This symposium asks whether environmentalism is in fact now facing its own ‘post-Fordist moment’, in which the language and values of ecology are at risk of being turned into an ideology of bureaucratic control and a technocratic justification for sustainable growth. It also raises the question of whether the environmental movement has anything to learn from the strategies of resistance proposed by the theorists of immaterial labour and the exploration of these issues by contemporary artists.

In the wake of the debacle of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, the question arises whether there might be more to ecological crisis than mitigating the threat posed by climate change to the current global economic system, and whether the danger posed by the depletion of natural resources and the destruction of bio-diversity deserves to be a greater priority. The symposium will try to locate a sense of eco-criticality in the approaches of contemporary artists, and also consider the implications of an ecologically-nuanced, post-Fordist critique for the international art world.

The symposium on Art, Post-Fordism and Ecological Critique is the fifth in an annual series of events organised at Central European University by Maja and Reuben Fowkes of Translocal.org, the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, and the Centre for Arts and Culture at CEU. This year’s programme will include an afternoon of presentations and critical conversations in the main auditorium of Central European University on Friday 19 March, and a workshop event with symposium participants on the following day.

A small number of additional places are available for the workshop upon application.

Confirmed speakers include: Stephen Wright (art theorist, Paris), Igor Stokfiszewski (curator/critic/playwright, Warsaw), Branka Cvjeticanin (multimedia artist, Zagreb), Petra Feriancova (contemporary artist, Bratislava) and Ralo Mayer (artist, Vienna).

For more details see:
Symposium on Sustainability and Contemporary Art: Art, Post-Fordism and Eco-Critique

Contemporary art historians and curators Maja and Reuben Fowkes (Translocal.org) present their on-going research into the Ecological Footprint of Contemporary Art. Concentrating on the ecological impact of major international art gatherings they will ask whether a biennial culture of globe trotting artists and curators can be justified.

Cornerhouse
70 Oxford Street
Manchester M1 5NH

Thursday December 10 6pm
Tickets: £3.00 £2.50 concs

translocal.org