The name of your duo, Recycle Group, refers to the environment. It is very pioneering, did you intend from the start to address environmental issues? Our name is that of our first exhibition, Recycle , in 2008 in Moscow. This idea of recycling is constitutive of our approach. For us, it goes further than a [...]
2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the famous 1972 Meadows report: “Limits to growth”. Given that the limits in the report have already been surpassed while business continues “as normal”, highlighted by the relative failure of the COP26 last November, the current international exhibitions and biennales are pushing the “reset” button. The M Leuven museum [...]
Designed and led by the glass artist, naturalist and environmentalist Joseph Rossano, from Washington State (USA), “Salmon School'' is a project of wild salmon conservation as well as an artistic initiative. The project focuses on the issue of climate change and the effects of warming waterways, and it has three objectives: restoring waterways, educating communities, [...]
Let’s start the year 2021 with 21 items of good news and let us voluntarily place ourselves under the sign of optimism, according to a famous quote by Antonio Gramsci: "We must combine the pessimism of reason with the optimism of will". The year 2020, so unprecedented, has led us to constantly adapt, develop and [...]
From the 17th of October 2020 until the 28th of February 2021, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts is presenting its seventh edition of the contemporary art biennial, curated by the artist Jui-Chung Yao (姚瑞中) and entitled “Subzoology”. By examining the Buddhist belief of reincarnation, where the non-physical essence of human beings begins new [...]
Art of change 21 - Your work has dealt with ecological issues since the 90s. How did that begin? Bigert & Bergström - We met when we were students at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. We were both regular visitors to the Biological Museum in the city which has been there since 1893. [...]
For twelve years the American artist Dornith Doherty has been leading a project on the preservation and conservation of plant seeds: “Archiving Eden”. Doherty explores "seed banks" also known as "grain libraries" dedicated to conserving, protecting, and analyzing plant seeds from many species. By studying the evolution of these new types of plant granaries over [...]
We must once again confess; the UK’s cultural sector has made a head start on sustainability. After galleries (see the article on the carbon footprint of galleries in our last Impact Arts News issue), it’s now the turn of museums to accelerate their ecological transition. Eight amongst 256 proposals have just been selected to radically [...]
While the artistic activity of Autumn 2020 has been hampered, shaken up and weakened by the resurgence of the pandemic, contemporary art exhibitions on ecological issues are in rude health! Having explored a number of exhibitions in France (see our article, here), now we offer you an overview of some of the highlights and unusual [...]
Art of Change 21 - How are you feeling and coping with the Coronavirus crisis? Lin May Saeed - I'm okay, but I think about it a lot. The feelings of powerlessness that go hand in hand with the restrictions of everyday life, which are obviously new to many, seem to contribute to radicalization. As [...]
