CALL FOR PROJECTS COAL PRIZE 2025: Freshwater

The immemorial cosmogonies that have come down to us all say that the origin of life is linked to water. Contemporary science confirms this. And yet, the mysteries of water cannot be exhausted. We now know that it has been omnipresent in the Universe since its very origins and that it played a decisive role in the formation of stars and galaxies. Outside our planet, the molecule has only been formally identified in its solid or gaseous states. This makes its presence in liquid form on Earth all the more remarkable. Our planet’s unique conditions allow water to trickle down. It is in its liquid form that it has been, and will continue to be, the primordial home of all life.

Every organism on Earth, from the simplest to the most complex, is “a creature of thirst”. Its unique properties, including capillarity, dissolving power, and permanent trickling make it, according to Gaston Bachelard calls it “the eye of the Earth” or “the organ of the world”. To the rhythm of its cycles, it passes from one state to another, crosses materials, connects elements, ravines mountains, draws plains, drains minerals, elevates plants, vitalizes animals, composes the climate, cooling the atmosphere and capturing carbon. Every drop of freshwater brings life to life, whether it comes from groundwater, wetlands, or surface water. Marshes, mangroves, ponds, lakes, springs, rivers and streams all play their part in biological existence.

Yet freshwater represents only a few hundredths of the water on Earth. In temperate zones, we live in the illusion of its abundance; in arid zones, we live in the knowledge of its scarcity. Water can only be shared. Anthropogenic pressure on water cycles, linked to intensive agriculture, industrial activity, urbanization, energy production and the production of most of our consumer goods, is seriously disrupting the balance. Extreme droughts and major floods, as well as chemical and plastic pollution, are the most visible indicators.

Our thirst for growth is compromising the only source capable of quenching our thirst. Aux pollutions In addition, inequalities of access – over a quarter of humanity is still deprived of drinking water – engender increasingly extreme conflicts. Thinking about a freshwater policy can only be done on a planetary scale, with a shared vision of its uses, and with a concern to repair and protect all the places where water is found: the aquifers and glaciers that store it, the wetlands that capture carbon, the mangroves that slow erosion, the rivers that drain life… More than a common good, a fundamental right of all living beings, today we need to consider it as a subject endowed with rights.

How can we envisage an ecology and politics of water without a poetics of water? Protecting water also means regenerating the imaginaries, narratives, representations and practices that condition the way it is shared and used in our lives and actions.

The COAL Prize 2025 dedicated to freshwater is a call to fight against the drying up of our sensitivities towards it, to elevate it to its rightful place at the heart of general attention, to rehabilitate it in its symbolic and sacred prerogatives, to consider it as the ally and partner of our existences. It’s also a call to protect it, to play our part in restoring its natural cycles, to repair places that have been damaged, in solidarity with those, human and non-human, who are irreparably affected.

DISCOVER THE CALL FOR PROJECTS

In parallel, a call for projects is open for the COAL Student Prize for students of arts and culture schools > Click here to discover the call for projects for the Prix COAL étudiant 2025

CALENDAR

Call for projects closes: April 20, 2025

Announcement of nominated artists Summer 2025

Announcement of winners Autumn 2025

Awards ceremony Autumn 2025, on the occasion of Sans Réserve, the meeting place for creatives committed to ecology

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Ten artists are nominated by a selection committee of professionals for their projects submitted in response to this international call for entries. The Prix COAL and its special mentions are awarded from among these ten projects by a jury made up of representatives of the partner organizations and personalities from the fields of art and ecology. In addition, all the entries considered by COAL and the selection committee help to make known artists and projects that may be solicited or promoted according to other opportunities and actions carried out by the association and its partners.

The composition of the jury will be revealed this spring.

CRITERIA

Applicants will be judged on the following criteria: artistic value, relevance (understanding of the theme – Being Transformative), originality (the ability to introduce new approaches, themes, and points of view), pedagogy (ability to get a message across and raise awareness), social and participative approaches (engagement, testimony, efficiency, societal dynamics), eco-design and feasibility. The COAL Prize supports artistic projects in progress. The award is not intended to cover all production costs of the project but should be considered as an aid to its development.

APPLICATION

The application must include the following documents in a single pdf file named NAME_Firstname_2025_Project-Title (the file must not exceed 30 MB):

– Download the application form HERE

– A detailed description of the proposed project, describing its artistic dimension, and its relevance to the theme ‘Being Transformative’, including a note on the technical feasibility of the project and a budget estimation

– At least two visuals illustrating the project

– A CV and a portfolio

All proposals must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on April 20, 2025, on the COAL server: upload.projetcoal.org

By participating in this call for entries, project authors expressly authorize the COAL association and its partners to publish, reproduce and publicly distribute all or part of the elements of their project, for any purpose related to the promotion and communication of the COAL Prize, in any medium, in any country, in the event of nomination, as well as on the Transformatives territories platform dedicated to transformative artistic practices. Entries submitted but not selected will remain in the archives of the COAL association. They will, however, remain the property of their authors. Participation in this open call entails the full acceptance of these conditions.

ALLOCATIONS

– The winning artist of the COAL Prize receives an endowment of 12,000 euros and a creative residency at the heart of the Domaine de Belval, owned by the François Sommer Foundation, led by the scientific and educational teams of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the Domaine de Belval.

– The winning artist of the Jury’s Special Prize receives a prize of 3,000 euros.

– The winning artist of the Ateliers Médicis receives a residency in Clichy-sous-Bois/Montfermeil, in association with the Bondy regional forest.

– The winning artist of the mention Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles/Paris aka Le vaisseau will receive 2,000 euros and be invited to exhibit at the Paris institution.

PARTNERS 2025

The Prix COAL 2025 is financially supported by the French Ministry of Culture, the Office français de la Biodiversité, the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, the Fondation François Sommer and the Fondation LAccolade, as well as a partnership with the Ateliers Médicis and the Centre Wallonie Bruxelles/Paris.

French Ministry of Culture

In addition to its core mission of making the most important works of humanity, and first and foremost of France, accessible to as many people as possible, the Ministry of Culture is convinced that culture must play its full part in the vast project of ecological transition, and has been committed to this through successive strategies since 2010. Since 2023, the Ministry of Culture’s strategy has been set out in the Guide d’orientation et d’inspiration, which sets a course for the ecological transition of cultural players. The Ministry of Culture has supported the COAL Prize since its inception in 2010.

French Biodiversity Office (OFB)

The OFB is responsible for protecting and restoring biodiversity in France and its overseas territories. It works to preserve life in aquatic, terrestrial and marine environments, thanks to the expertise of its 2,800 employees, including 1,700 environmental inspectors. This public establishment also works by mobilizing a whole range of players, decision-makers and citizens around biodiversity: the State, local authorities, associations, businesses, scientists, farmers, fishermen, hunters, nature sports enthusiasts, members of the art world…

Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the François Sommer Foundation

Recognized as a public utility since its creation on November 30, 1966, the Foundation was the brainchild of François and Jacqueline Sommer, pioneers of humanist ecology. Faithful to the commitments of its founders, the Foundation works for the protection of biodiversity in which mankind finds its rightful place, for the respectful use of nature’s resources, and the sharing of the riches of our natural, artistic and cultural heritage.

Fondation LAccolade – Institut de France

The Fondation LAccolade promotes artistic creation and awareness of its environment. It encourages approaches, projects and actions by artists around the themes of water, the environment, the fragility of living beings and the feminine, through research and creation residencies and exhibitions in France and the United States. It also looks after the “matrimoine”, the legacy of women of historical or artistic importance.

Les Ateliers Médicis

Committed to the emergence of new, diverse artistic voices, and to supporting artists with singular, contemporary languages, Ateliers Médicis welcomes artists from all disciplines to residencies, and supports the creation of works conceived in conjunction with local communities. They encourage or organize encounters between artists and local residents. Located in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil, in the outskirts of Paris (Seine-Saint-Denis), they occupy a building in construction. A large-scale facility with national ambitions will be built by 2025, reaffirming the place of artistic creation in the suburbs.

Center Wallonie Bruxelles/Paris

Through its resolutely de-sanctuarizing and A-trans-indisciplinary programming, the Center is mandated to disseminate and promote the work of artists based in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. It thus promotes emerging and established approaches, from the peripheral to the established.