SurVivArt – Art For the Right to a "Good Life"
SurVivArt was inspired by the German Kulturstiftung’s initiative Über Lebenskunst and developed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation with support from its offices around the world. In the words of curator Valia Carvalho: “On an international scale, the project aims to bridge the gap between sustainability, gender equity, and the arts and culture. It has been important for us not to make our cultural interpretations the benchmark for what art should look like. The aim was not for the artists involved to produce works for Western European tastes, and we do not want to export our German or ‘green’ notions of what a sustainable good life should look like. We want projects that give us an understanding of the specific perspectives various regions do have on art and sustainability.”
Via the website www.survivart.org the artists involved – they are from Ethiopia, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, Nigeria, Thailand, and the Czech Republic – are able to document the stages of their work and communicate with one another. Wherever non-existent, debates concerning climate change, sustainability, or gender roles were prompted by SurVivArt projects. In many locations, the project brought together for the first time artists and local communities to talk about sustainable practices within the framework of their everyday lives. “From the very beginning, SurVivArt was an inspiring, creative, and reflexive journey – not just for those involved but for us, too,” reports Valia Carvalho. “This had already been tangible during the preview of projects that took place during the Über Lebenskunst summer festival, in August 2011 at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt.”
From the 7th until the 24th of February 2012 works created as part of the project by artists Kebreab Demeke, Robel Temesgen, Alafuro Sikoki, Segun Adefila, Adebimpe Adebambo, Oeur Sokuntevy, Neak Sophal, Tith Kanitha, Nino Sarabutra, and Phyoe Kyi will be on display at the galleries Mikael Andersen and Meinblau in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district.
The project has resulted in a mosaic of diverse perspectives. The art works narrate widely differing stories – about the quest for a “good life”; the quest for balance, happiness, and contentment; about the responsible as well as creative and playful handling of resources and new modes of consumption. They also tell us about the power of communities, their potential to survive, and their strength that inspires artists to contribute to a good life through their art.
A project from Thailand, for example, focuses on our patterns of consumption; in Ethiopia villagers turned omnipresent jerry cans into living art and children engaged with their visions for the future; in Cambodia the artists were inspired by rice pots and set up a flea market of memories.
Parallel to the SurVivArt presentation the conference Radius of Art will promote a never before seen international dialogue and exchange of ideas between culture, science, and politics.
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SurVivArt Overview
- title: SurVivArt
- venues: galleries Mikael Andersen and Meinblau, Pfefferberg, Christinenstraße 18/19, 10119 Berlin
- duration: 7th – 24th February, 2012
- opening hours: Tuesday through Friday 12 noon – 6 p.m., Saturdays 11a.m. – 4 p.m.
- opening: 5th February 2012, 6 p.m.
- artists: Kebreab Demeke, Robel Temesgen, Alafuro Sikoki, Segun Adefila, Adebimpe Adebambo, Oeur Sokuntevy, Neak Sophal, Tith Kanitha, Nino Sarabutra, Phyoe Kyi
- curator: Valia Carvalho
A catalogue will be forthcoming.
For further information:
press contact Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung:
Karoline Hutter
e-mail: hutter@boell.de
phone: +30 - 285 34-202
press contact for project:
Achim Klapp
e-mail: ak@achimklapp.de, klapp@boell.de
phone: +30 - 257 97 016
