ARTAFRICAfrom Nuuk (Greenland) to Aalborg (Denmark),
then by refrigerated truck to Paris. Julie’s Bicycle, a
charity that promotes environmental sustainability
in the arts, calculated that the carbon footprint
of Eliasson’s icebergs is the equivalent of thirty
people flying between France and Greenland.In fact, the carbon footprint of producing the
entire COP21 event horrified many. If you are
not already fully part of the solution, are you not
in fact part of the problem – like many of the
unclean corporations who took advantage of
the publicity to become official sponsors of the
conference? For Eliasson (certainly no stranger to
these questions), the carbon footprint of his work
is justified by connecting citizens with evidence
brought up close: “If you feel disconnected, you
may also feel indifferent,” said the artist. But does
the end justify the means? Is the idea of bigger-
is-better, or creating and promoting ‘great’ artists
not more colonialist, expansionist, accelerationist
thinking? Even a quick survey of the carbon
footprint of most of the ‘offical’ art selected for
the event leaves an urgent question mark.The young Indian artist, ethnographer and curator
Rajyashri Goody and I had a week to pull together
an event in Paris with no budget. Whatever we
did had to be small, intimate and below the radar.
Only days earlier, armed police had invaded and
searched the collectively occupied house, perhaps
suspicious that activists might be harbouring
fugitive Islamic militants.‘Foreign Exchange’ brought together seven artists
and activists from countries across the Global
South, to present our work and spark conversations
with people about their efforts towards climate
justice within their communities back home. We
asked participants to create their own currency
by drawing on blank paper notes, using their
personalised money as a token of symbolic value
offered to the artwork of their choice.CREATING A CLIMATE OF FAITH IN PARIS / KAI LOSSGOTT 4/6 ARTAFRICA
TOP TO BOTTOM: By ‘making money’ participants could
create their own currency according to personal values
and and offer it, to artists and activists that resounded
with them, thereby diversifying the ability to express
appreciation. At ‘Foreign Exchange,’ 7th December 2015,
La Générale, Paris. Photograph: Rajyashri Goody. Courtesy
of the photographer; Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing, Ice
Watch Paris, 2015. Place du Panthéon, Paris. Photo: Martin
Argyroglo. © 2015 Olafur Eliasson.
FEATURE / COP21 PARIS