Imagining Natural Scotland, aiming to thoroughly think through the relationship between the arts and the natural environment, is holding a series of sessions which promise to be more interesting than the title suggests. Sessions are to encourage collaborations applying for the awards.
Each session will feature,
Detailed information on how to apply to the Imagining Natural Scotland fund.
A presentation, open discussion and Q&A on a particular aspect of Natural Scotland’s representation in the arts and popular culture; featuring guest speakers from both the environmental and creative sectors.
Time for networking and meeting potential collaborators.
Dumfries will feature artist, author and planner, Timothy Collins and Reader in the Institute of Geography, Emily Brady on why arts and humanities informed by science are uniquely situated to explore future imaginaries and potential virtues where nature is concerned.
From what we understand one of the key issues for the Imagining Natural Scotland team is that the visual arts (and applied arts?) are perceived to be very engaged with the environment compared to music, dance and poetry, though we’re certain that there are those that would dispute this perception. The point is that visual and applied artists interested in this programme might want to partner up with other art forms.
ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology. Go to EcoArtScotland
Cultura21 e.V. is happy to announce the first „Cultura21 Forum“ in Germany:
The Cultivation of Ecology/-ies:
gardens and complexity in rural and urban areas
September 23rd to 25th, 2011 – “Studio Kunst und Landschaft†in Hude (aprox. 13 km from Oldenburg)
Registration is required (see below) – Please notice that this event will be bilingual, but the main language will be German (and there will be no translation service)!
The “Cultura21 Forum†starts on Friday evening with a public event in the “Studio Kunst und Landschaftâ€. The ecological artist Insa Winkler will offer a guided tour on the terrain. Three guest speakers will give an introduction to “culture(s) of sustainability (the role of gardening culture)â€. On Saturday registered participants of the “Cultura21 Forum†will get the chance to take part in specific workshops and open space sessions. The Sunday also is a public event and will contain three speeches and a panel discussion. The speakers will deal with the vision of participative and collective cultivation of ecology in rural and urban areas. The forum will end with a “guerilla gardening†intervention, which will be prepared the day before.
The concept of the “Cultura21 Forumâ€
By organizing an annual “Cultura21 Forumâ€, Cultura21 in Germany wants to concentrate all the positive energy of its members and also of like-minded organisations. The aim is to make possible a regular exchange between the participants. Furthermore, other initiatives treating the issue of a “culture of sustainability†should be given room to grow and develop. The basic idea of the forum is to have both a thematic focus and an open space part in the program. The open space part is meant to be the source for new project ideas, created in free exchange and discussions. These parts are linked with each other in the program and complement one another.
2011 edition: the cultivation of ecology/-ies
The main topic of the “Cultura21 Forum†2011 is: “The cultivation of ecology/-ies: gardens and complexity in rural and urban areasâ€. Our attention will be especially turned to “guerilla gardeningâ€: guerilla gardening is known as a creative-subversive type of civil disobedience and political protest from the 1970s in New York. Over the years a development has taken place, and nowadays guerilla gardening can be seen with the perspective of “urban agriculture†and “urban gardensâ€. This type of protest combines the adornment of concrete-dominated urban areas, the temporary use, the greening of idle areas and also the possibility to harvest.
Besides planting “surprise gardensâ€, seed bombs are the most familiar type of creative protest. They contain a mixture of seeds, soil and clay, shaped like a ball. You then normally just drop these bombs wherever you wish. Further aims are the enforcement of self-supply, protest against the agro-industry and the sowing of unusual seeds. Guerilla gardening is quite controversial and therefore will be discussed in the panel discussion. There will also be a workshop on “seed bombsâ€. On Sunday, they are supposed to be launched/sowed by the participants next to a piece of farmland.
Preparatory online exchanges for the “Open Space†sessions are conducted on this website, on our online forum: Click here
About the speakers
Sacha Kagan, Lüneburg
Research Associate at the Institute of Cultural Theory, Research, and the Arts (ICRA/IKKK) at the Leuphana University Lüneburg ; member of Cultura21 e.V. since 2006 ; founding coordinator of the international platform of Cultura21 and founding director of the International Summer School of Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation (ASSiST). The focus of his scientific and cultural work is on the transdisciplinary field of arts an (un)sustainability.
Oleg Koefoed, Copenhagen
Oleg Koefoed, action philosopher, is the founder of the “Gravitations Center for Action Philosophy†and founding director of Cultura21 Nordic (with its headquarters in Copenhagen).
Hildegard Kurt, Berlin (Workshop “Jeder Mensch ein Künstler?†[Every human being an artist?])
Hildegard Kurt, cultural scientist, author and working on social sculpture, is one of the key figures for the intercession of arts and sustainability in Germany. She is head of the Berlin “und.Institute für Kunst, Kultur und Zukunftsfähigkeit“ (und.Institut) [und.institute for arts, culture and sustainability] which she was a co-founder of. She is also working at the “Social Sculpture Research Unit (SSRU)†at Oxford Brookes University in the UK (which is led by the artist and former Beuys-student Shelley Sacks).
Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen, Berlin (Community Gardens in New York)
Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen works as an independent journalist and sociologist in Berlin, doing research, editing, teaching and consulting. (In former days, self-help agriculture was ill-reputed as informal self-help economy of women. Today it returns to the cities and to the mind of the people: wild vegetable cultivation on fallow, guerilla gardening, “hard core vegetable cultivationâ€, “intercultural gardens†from New York to Berlin…)
Christa Müller, Berlin/Munich
For the “anstiftung & ertomis†foundation, Christa Müller did research on the intercultural potential of urban gardening in the international gardens of Göttingen. She co-founded the network “Interkulturelle Gärten†[intercultural gardens] and the “Interkultur†foundation.
Rana Öztürk, Berlin
Cultural scientist, Rana Öztürk did her MA Thesis on “Sustainable Fashion: New Approaches within the Fashion Industryâ€. Member of Cultura21 e.V. since 2007 ; Chairwoman of the German organization since 2010., Rana Öztürk is the Communication Administrator at the artist’s workshop of Anselm Reyle.
Insa Winkler, Hude/Wüsting
Insa Winkler works as a landscape architect and environmental artist. “Die Artenvielfalt-Route†[the biodiversity route] is a participative project “in my neighborhood†about art and ecology. By means of education and visualization of life-forms, a mapping exercise of biodiversity is conducted. The result is a new corridor between the agrarian landscape and the urban areas, which is perceived as an ecological and public area. People are actively motivated to protect areas or even to increase the biodiversity in their own garden.
Practical Information
The participation fee (including coffee, drinks, snacks) for 3 days is:
– participants who are not paying members of Cultura21 Germany: 30€/20€ reduced
– participants who are members of Cultura21 Germany: 10€/15€ reduced
… for 1 day: – participants who are not members of Cultura21 Germany: 15€/ 8€ reduced
– participants who are members of Cultura21 Germany: 10€/ 5€ reduced
Reduced participation fees are only for students and unemployed persons (please provide supporting documents by email).
Please transfer the participation fee until September 10th (please write “Cultura21 Forum†in the comment field) to this bank account:
To make the planning easier, please register online for the event: Click here
Accommodation and travel must be organized by yourself. We recommend to book a room early enough and are happy to help you if necessary. Please find here a list with accommodations near Hude: PDF file (in German language).
The Organizers
The Forum will take place in cooperation with the “Studio Kunst und Landschaft†in Hude and is kindly supported by the city of Oldenburg.
The „Studio Kunst und Landschaft†invites you to look at various theme gardens and park elements on their 1ha territory. Furthermore can be found several sculptural works and objects created by Insa Winkler and other artists. This is also the main office of “artecology-networkâ€, founded in 2010. The Winkler family, who runs the place, also offers space for seminars, exhibitions, concerts, readings and conferences. As well, Insa Winkler’s landscape architecture office and her studio are situated on the premises.
If you cannot come to the event but wish to help finance the Cultura21 Forum, please contribute to our Crowdfunding effort: Click here (the crowdfunding webpage is currently available only in German language).
Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.
Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.
The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:
– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)
Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21
JB launched three reports on the carbon impact of touring – Bands, Orchestras and Theatres under the title Moving Arts: Managing the Carbon Impacts of our Touring. It was nine months work and it really felt like it. JB analysed nearly 100 international tour samples ranging from small club artists, chamber orchestras and small touring companies to stadium tours, symphony orchestras and major west end productions.
JB launched the Bands report at some of the country’s most iconic venues: the music industry came to the Royal Albert Hall with keynote speaker the awesome John Elkington, founder of SustainAbility, Theatre was launched at the National Theatre with inspired guest speakers Jonathon Porritt, and Nick Starr, CEO of the National Theatre and Orchestras launched at the Royal Festival Hall which coincided with 350th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Society & the European premiere of Icarus: At the Edge of Time by Brian Greene and Philip Glass.
Huge thanks to Jonathon and all at Forum for the Future, and to Nick and all at the National, and to Chris Cotton and his team at the Royal Albert Hall for their real support and leadership. Also to Jude Kelly and to Marshall Marcus at the Southbank Centre, Mark Pemberton and Keith Motson (ABO), Henry Little (Orchestras Live), and everyone else for their help – not least our funders Cathy Graham, Andrew Jonesand the British Council, Susanna Eastburn and the Arts Council, Rob Hallett and AEG and Simon Moran and SJM. Also all our panel members who critiqued (occasionally uncomfortable) and committed to (always inspired) the work:Jazz Summers, Chris Yorke, Bryan Grant, Rachel Tackley, Kathryn Macdowell, Sally Cowling and – specially, Catherine Bottrill (twice the average brain), Christina Tsiarta (same again). And the 500 or so people who came to the events.
Download the reports here: Bands, Orchestras, Theatres, or let then know if you would like a hard copy.
You can also read transcriptions of John Elkington andJonathon Porritt’s keynote speeches – it’s a good way of spending five minutes of your life.
Call for participation Nations in the Age of Global Economic Meltdown International Seminar/Workshop for Contemporary Art Professionals: November 10 – 11 2009
Muzeum Sztuki Lódz Poland
Guest speakers: Marina Grzinic and Jens Haaning.
Muzeum Sztuki in Lódz, in collaboration with Public Preparation, an international platform for knowledge-production and networking, is calling for applications to participate in a two-day seminar/workshop dedicated to the critical exploration of interconnections between nationalist ideology and the capitalist economic system.
Amongst other groups, the contemporary art community is witnessing growing tendencies toward nationalism, which in the most radical cases take the form of violent intolerance, racism and xenophobia. With the very recent appearance of the global financial crises, protectionist policies have emerged, re-gained in popularity and started to play a central role in the emergency plans for economies directed by national governments. Capitalism forms a fundamental part of modern economies and, having developed hand in hand with modern nation state apparatuses, recent changes in the global economy and the revival of nationalism force us to recognise, discuss and examine, the changes in relations between these two super-forces which drive the world. In focusing on the symbiotic link between nationalist ideology and the neoliberal capitalist order, we would like to invite art professionals, especially curators, theoreticians and artists, who have been dealing with this issue and related topics in their prior practice to participate, to share their knowledge, experience and ideas during “Nations in the Age of Global Economic Meltdown”.
The questions that might be addressed during the two-day seminar/workshop could be articulated as follows: How are national values and traditions used as an excuse for economic activities and corporate politics? How is capital used as a tool of power to fulfill nationalist-imperialist policies in particular regions? How might the return to protectionist politics influence nationalist movements in contemporary Europe during this crises of global capitalism? How do they deal with migration and transnational identity? Why do nation-states behave like companies and companies act like nation-states? What is behind states branding themselves and using marketing tools and companies becoming multinational empires with their own rules and regulations? How is art and culture instrumentalised for the sake of strengthening national identity and promoting the nation?
The seminar/workshop consists of a seminar and a screening open to the public plus discussion on November 10, 2009 continuing with closed workshops on November 11, 2009. The workshops will be held by Marina Grzinic and Jens Haaning.
We greatly regret that Muzeum Sztuki and the Public Preparation teams cannot provide accommodation and travel grants, but we are able to provide supporting letters for funding organisations and assist with individual fund-raising. And of course we are happy to advise on budgeting options such as good value accommodation.
About the Public Preparation platform: “Nations in the Age of Global Economic Meltdown” will take place within the framework of Public Preparation events. Public Preparation is an international platform for knowledge- production and networking. First and foremost it is a space for international collaboration focusing on the current practices of critical thinking and production in the field of contemporary art. The main agenda of Public Preparation is to concentrate on questions linked to the concept of an artist as a citizen. Contemporary art is a crucial part of the public realm, exhibition spaces are places for open discussion and artists have the power and responsibility to be actively engaged in the process of examining, imagining and changing social reality. The current phase of Public Preparation activities deals critically with the growing tendencies of nationalism in contemporary Europe, aiming to envision alternative ways to think about the global community. More information about Public Preparation project can be found at www.publicpreparation.org
