IS ART SINKING VENICE?
WHEN: SATURDAY 9 JUNE 2007, 10AM-12PM
WHERE: THE WALES PAVILION: EX-BIRRERIA DREHR ON THE ISLAND OF GIUDECCA, VENICE, ITALY.
Reached from the Palanca Vaporetto stop on Giudecca (see map attached).
Speakers:
Heather Morison, Artist
Siân Ede, Arts Director for the UK Branch of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Professor Ignazio Musu, Professor of Economics and Environmental Economics in the Faculty of Economics of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Chaired by Michaela Crimmin, Head of Arts, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, London
Places are free but limited so booking is recommended. To reserve a place please contact Gemma Lloyd at [email protected] or +44(0)20 7451 6845
Is Art Sinking Venice? will explore how the international arts constituency, individually and collectively, is responding to environmental challenges.
In a city that is no stranger to environmental issues (with 2012 scheduled as the completion date for a new flood barrier system), Venice will again be brimming over with members of the arts constituency for the 52nd Biennale, each contributing to the overall carbon footprint of the city. The current population of the city is made up of a staggering 60,000 day visitors, 20,000 students - and a diminishing number of 60,000 permanent residents who absorb both the economic and environmental costs to keep the city afloat.
Meanwhile international travel is surely an imperative for cross cultural understanding and exchange. What, if any, are the moral requirements for the arts constituency to play a more active role in addressing the challenges ahead? The effects of the way many of us live our lives – pollution, drought, flooding, waste, coastal erosion, desertification and conflict amongst them - are on the rise. This is, and increasingly will, impact on people across the world, most particularly and unjustly on those who produce and consume the least.
The RSA is collaborating with Arts Council England and other international organisations to explore the realities of climate change and its cultural, political and economic implications. Offering artists new contexts for different forms of production, presentation and engagement with new audiences, the new partnerships aim to seed a vibrant culture of arts and ecology practice throughout the UK and internationally.
For more information on the Arts & Ecology programme go to: http://www.RSAartsandecology.org.uk
