Adapting to the Anthropocene, UNESCO-COAL

Exhibition organized by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and COAL, Coalition for Art and Sustainable Development.

Monday, November 25 to Friday, November 30 ● 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Opening on Tuesday, November 26, at 6:00 p.m., as an extension of the round table Thinking the Anthropocene from 4:15 to 6:00 p.m. in Room II

On the occasion of World Philosophy Day 2013.

Fourteen projects by contemporary artists involved in environmental issues nominated in the different editions of the COAL Art and Environment Prize: Ackroyd & Harvey – Thierry Boutonnier and Ralph Mahfoud – Damien Chivialle – Olivier Darné – Nicolas Floc’h – Hanna Husberg, Laura McLean, Nabil Ahmed, Benedetta Panisson, Rosa Barba, Christopher Draeger & Heidrun Holzfeind, Marian Tubbs and Drew Denny – Ivana Adaime Makac – Matthew Moore – Liliana Motta – Lucy+Jorge Orta – Zhao Renhui – Anna Katharina Scheidegger – Laurent Tixador – The Migrant Ecologies Project.

Entitled Adapting to the Anthropocene, this exhibition will present artistic projects nominated during the different editions of the COAL Art and Environment Prize, which all have in common to apprehend the great environmental, societal and contemporary stakes, by participating in the emergence of a new culture of nature and ecology. Each year, through the COAL Art and Environment Prize, this association rewards a contemporary artist involved in environmental issues. The winner is chosen from among ten artists selected by a jury of personalities from the world of contemporary art, research, ecology and sustainable development, in the context of an international call for projects.

The awarding of this prize has now become a true international event that attracts many renowned artists and pioneers in the art of ecology. Each year, the Coal Art and Environment Award focuses on a theme. The 2013 edition dedicated to the theme of Adaptation received nearly three hundred entries from over 50 countries.

Created in 2010 by the association COAL, the COAL Art and Environment Prize, endowed with 10 000 euros, is placed under the high patronage of the French Ministries of Culture and Communication, Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, as well as the National Center of Plastic Arts. It also benefits from the support of private partners.

For UNESCO, this exhibition will be an exceptional opportunity to promote to the general public the ethical principles and responsibilities for adaptation to climate change that the Organization strives to encourage, every day, through its activities, and in particular through the activities developed by its World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST).

These principles and responsibilities, which call upon humanity to ensure environmental sustainability, encourage humans to consider biodiversity and ecosystem integrity as the very basis of life on earth.

Beyond the analytical contributions of the social sciences that can help change human behavior, there is no doubt in UNESCO’s mind that art can not only be a suitable emotional medium for fostering new attitudes towards nature and the environment, but can also reflect them. This is what the association COAL, created in France in 2008 by professionals of contemporary art, sustainable development and research, is testifying to in order to promote the emergence of a culture of ecology.

Download the complete program of the World Philosophy Day.

Download the full program of the World Philosophy Day.

UNESCO House
Salle des Pas Perdus and Salle Miró
7 place de Fontenoy, Paris 7e (November 25, 28 and 29)
125, avenue Suffren, Paris 7e (November 26 and 27)

Visual credit: The glacier study group, 2013. Institute of critical zoologists