3/6 ARTAFRICApopulations who have to live with them. Addressing these global inequalities is the labour of climate
justice.
This work is already pursued by many of the civil society movements, activists, artists and concerned
citizens who made it their business to visibly and personally represent their communities in Paris. In
the first few days of collective planning we were challenged by the north/south emotional climate and
ideological differences. It did not help that, after the Islamic fundamentalist attacks of 13 November
2015, large public gatherings were forbidden under the state of emergency declared by President
Hollande, a matter enforced by police at protest marches, at times with teargas.
As cultural practitioners operating from the ideological position of the Global South, our identity will
be defined by how we draw on and respond to local production in the construction of our practices.
This means we have to know and respect our own people. It calls for new methodologies that integrate
theory and lived experience with personal practice. What is truly responsible, environmentally ethical
or relevant artistic practice in the face of climate change, if initiated from the lived experience of the
South?
Here in Paris, tourists are moved en masse to take selfies with twelve gigantic blocks of ice, melting
on the Place du Panthéon. I wonder how many people on Instagram were inspired by the prominent
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s work Ice Watch Paris to make a personal behavioural change or
take up the cause. I also wonder if it was worth the cost. After all, the blocks were brought here on a boat
FEATURE / COP21 PARISCREATING A CLIMATE OF FAITH IN PARIS / KAI LOSSGOTT
The Beehive Collective researched and produced by twenty-two artists over nine years, presented at ‘Foreign
Exchange,’ 7th December 2015, La Générale, Paris. Photograph: Rajyashri Goody. Courtesy of the photographer.