CLIMATE:Lab #5 I LOOKING FOR SOUP

THE MUSEUM AS CIVIC LABORATORY

In October 2022, activists splattered Van Gogh´s sunflowers with canned soup to protest the climate crisis and request a world without oil.

Risking jail to raise awareness, they “reframed Art” to remind us of the obvious: why should we protect painted flowers while we allow the destruction of the living world? In this short intervention, we will question what museums can learn from activism to help move the sustainable transformation forward. We will explore how collections and aesthetic experiences could be used to spark investigative thinking, learn more about the climate crisis, and translate knowledge into impactful local climate actions. Why not use Art to nourish new forms of civic creativity, deploy educational tools for transformation literacy and co-develop place-based networks? An activist museum would support the collaboration between visitors, actors of the public administration and civil society and help develop concrete climate adaptation/mitigation projects. Museums can do more than provide cool shelters during future heat waves, – they can help bridge the space between scientific knowledge and political education, motivate civic engagement and transform „oil on canvas” into collective climate action.

Speakers : Timothée Ingen-Housz, Berlin University of the Arts, & Guests