Know More About The Initiative
Historical Background.
The intersection of art and advocacy has a long history of shaping societal progress. Dating back to 16th-century France, King Charles IX established the Académie de Poésie et de la Musique to explore how the arts could influence social order and morality, seeking to integrate music and morality with other academic disciplines like natural philosophy and science. Institutions like the Académie aimed to create cultural cohesion by fostering an interdisciplinary approach. During the Enlightenment, thinkers like Francis Bacon further developed this idea, advocating for the unification of knowledge through reason and empirical evidence. In the German-speaking world, Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762) played a crucial role in establishing aesthetics as a formal discipline, emphasizing the arts' role in shaping moral and intellectual development. Similarly, Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000), an Austrian artist and environmental activist, created art deeply embedded in nature and identity, which also inspires my approach to environmental ethics.
Rabindranath Tagore championed a similar vision in India (1861–1941), who founded Visva-Bharati University to integrate the arts, sciences, and humanities in education. Tagore believed in the holistic cultivation of creativity, knowledge, and moral values, advocating for an interdisciplinary and international approach to learning that transcended rigid academic boundaries. His philosophy emphasized that the arts were not just for aesthetic appreciation but were essential for fostering intellectual and societal progress.
However, as science and art began to diverge in the following centuries, the potential for emotional engagement in scientific issues diminished. In the modern era, this gap is particularly evident in addressing issues such as climate change, where the knowledge-action divide has proven difficult to overcome.
As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues, facts and data are insufficient to drive behavioral change. The arts, with their emotional and evocative nature, offer a unique opportunity to bridge this gap. Emotional engagement, which the arts can evoke, is critical in catalyzing collective action. This initiative, employing pictures and montages, reasserts the role of the arts in tackling societal issues like climate change. The historical legacy of using art to foster dialogue and change finds resonance in the contemporary context of climate action.
Objective.
The primary objective of these exhibitions is to spark a meaningful conversation about the global climate crisis and encourage viewers to reflect on their relationship with the environment. The project aims to go beyond merely displaying climate-related imagery—it seeks to use art as a catalyst for change and create a feeling of hope. Additionally, this exhibition will serve as the launch of an ongoing series, with future installments addressing specific climate-related issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, ocean health, food security, renewable energy, climate-induced migration, and other relevant sub-topics. Since social change is often driven first by emotions and only later by rational thought and moral judgment, artistic engagement plays a crucial role in fostering societal transformations related to climate change.
“Using photography and visual arts to facilitate meaningful dialogues on climate change and ecological impact “
By incorporating a participatory element, the exhibition will also function as qualitative research, as viewers are invited to engage in open discussions aimed at sharing experiences, co-creating knowledge, and reimagining public goals. Their responses will be documented and analyzed with the use of participatory drama to understand sources of vulnerability, risks, and resilience in communities while informing the artist’s broader research on the intersection of climate narratives and public engagement.
