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

“He is scathing, however, of the continuing blindness of artists, curators and institutions to their own enormous carbon footprints. “They lug lumps of wood around the world for exhibitions. Printing a catalogue on recycled paper is pathetic tokenism – no FTSE company would get away with that.” Contemporary art is an expensive, global business. Artists, curators and the works all end up flying, while galleries themselves require expensive climactic conditions. Indeed, curators in London and Copenhagen admit they have no idea of the carbon cost of their exhibitions.”

The Rise of Climate Change Art

“McDonald’s is going green – swapping its traditional red backdrop for a deep hunter green – to promote a more eco-friendly image in Europe.

About 100 German McDonald’s restaurants will make the change by the end of 2009, the company said in a statement Monday. Some franchises in Great Britain and France have already started using the new colour scheme behind their Golden Arches.”

Making the change is as simple as that…

An irresistible new machine of resistance will be launched during the COP15 UN summit protests in Copenhagen. Made from hundreds of old bicycles and thousands of activists’ bodies ‘Put the fun between your legs: Operation Bike Bloc’ is a collaboration between Climate Camp (www.climatecamp.org.uk) and art activist collective The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (www.labofii.net).

Infamous for touring the UK recruiting a rebel clown army, running courses in postcapitalist culture, throwing snowballs at bankers and launching a rebel raft regatta, the Lab of ii’s creative visions will combine with the Climate Camp’s logistical genius, radical politics and capacity for mass mobilization to engineer an entirely new form of civil disobedience.

Bike hackers, welders, activists, artists and engineers will team up to design the resistance machine in Bristol, UK. It will then be built and launched in Copenhagen as part of the Climate Justice Action mobilizations. The Bike Bloc will merge device of mass transportation and pedal powered resistance tool, postcapitalist bike gang and art bike carnival. We invite you to put the fun between your legs and become the bike bloc.

On the 16th of December the Bike Bloc will swarm through the streets during the  Reclaim Power action for climate justice.

RSA Art and Ecology’s William Shaw asks on his blog:

‘As the debt bubble bursts, does the art world share some of that blame for joining in the party?’
Did art help add the sheen to Dubai?.

Perhaps this will start a trend towards participants in biennials thinking more about sustainability and the wider structures to which their event is systemically connected?

We are weighed down by works of art!

"Their present-day number, which is practically infinite, already greatly
exceeds our capacity for assimilation. Regardless, new ones are created
everyday. How can we avoid contributing to this proliferation, without
relinquishing the possibility of producing effects on the real? How can we
progress without increasing?" Jean-Baptiste Farkas

1 685 740 works of art are produced per day in the world.
19.51 works of art are produced per second in the world.

These statistics are available online at http://jbf.biennaledeparis.org

Statistics produced by Caroline Keppi.
E-mail : caroline.keppi[AT]biennaledeparis.org

The special 100th issue of Third Text subtitled ‘Art and Vision for the Future’ contains a number of contributions that deal with art and sustainability, not least of which is the article by the editor Rasheed Aareen, who writes:

‘Art must go beyond the making of mere objects meant for museums and/or to be sold as precious commodities in the art market. Only then can it enter the world of everyday life and the collective energy which is struggling not only to improve life itself but to save this planet from total destruction.’ (Rasheed Araeen)

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a915675252&fulltext=713240928