Oldal 237 [237]
Nature, Art, ACTIVISM 235
that could find a way out of the impasse. The ACLIM! agents profess that we
have to discard the petrified schemes of thinking in order to liberate the climate
imagination. That, in turn, is dependent on a new ideal of knowledge in which
scholarship is paired with intuition, emotional intelligence, bodily experiences,
artistic knowledge and dialogue. What is at stake is the survival of our home.”””
This endeavor, the fusion of scientific results with artistic tools and their
communication, is one of the main ambitions of environmental art.
Artists for Climate Consciousness was started by two Hungarian poets, Péter
Zävada and Janos Afra. Both were shocked by the climate reports for 2019, followed
the activity of the Fridays For Future and Extinction Rebellion ecological movements,
and their translation work also inspired them to do something with the means of
art. Their aim was to launch an all-round artistic movement, so in August 2019
they created the Artists for Climate Consciousness Facebook group and announced
a call for artists 1) to post a work, 2) to make a pledge to be environmentally
conscious, 3) to call on three other people to do the same. They did not want to
form a group of their own, but rather to weave a web: everyone complying with
the three points of the call becomes part of the network. Their aim is: “to contribute
with their own tools to spreading information, so that people won't sweep the
issue aside. Let us take our stand for something, not against something. We must
encourage people to ponder, to assume responsibility, because only our individual
decisions will force larger powers (companies, politicians) to act.”
Their activity moved beyond the online space as well. In September 2019, they
organized a poetry reading and roundtable discussion night in Trafé (Trafé Per¬
forming Arts Theatre, Budapest),
where environmentalists, philoso¬
phers and poets discussed questions
of climate and sustainability and the
tasks of artists. In February 2020,
they staged a discussion on the cli¬
vn ? mate issue and the artistic representa¬
RDŐ Á A tion of the theme with the title Price
EKEDES = KLIMAKRIZIS? of a Forest. Economic growth = Cli¬
F mate crisis? during the Budapest Slam
poetry nights, with the participation
of climate experts, politicians and
artists. The poster read: “Attendance
is free. Attendance is demonstration”
Figure 7. The poster of the slam
poetry evening. Source: https://
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=
3297117020304228&set=
gm.477902369757414&idorvanity=
464276491120002
27
https://archive.offbiennale.hu/2021/projects/aclim.html.
28 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1000667 14901803