To face the climate crisis it is necessary to activate participatory processes

The climate crisis we are facing requires complex responses and that is where culture can operate, as there is a whole know-how of inclusive and participatory practices that can help us devise collective responses to these local environmental challenges.

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report says that “adaptation planning and implementation that do not consider adverse outcomes for different groups can lead to maladaptation, increasing exposure to risks, marginalising people from certain socio-economic or livelihood groups, and exacerbating inequity. Inclusive planning initiatives informed by cultural values, indigenous knowledge, local knowledge, and scientific knowledge can help prevent maladaptation”.

In this context, the ‘Art Living Lab for Sustainability’ aspires to co-create environment-friendly practices thanks to the impulse of contemporary art and culture. It is urgent to generate participatory mechanisms that contribute to reducing the effects of climate change and to be able to promote mechanisms that help the territories, at the micro-level, to improve their resilience capacity.

The main mission of this project is to demonstrate the capacity of culture and art to address sustainability and not only as a generator of new works of art but also as an activator of processes, of participatory methodologies that make it easier for neighbors to experience responses to their collective needs.

The art as a response to environmental challenges

The long-awaited autonomy of art has been expanded towards interdependence with life, the planet... it is necessary to generate beacons of light that illuminate newer artistic careers and, above all, generate new ethics and other aesthetics. If in many sectors they are working with the idea of nature-based solutions, it is not common in the artistic sector, so its complexity must be addressed and works of art developed with that philosophy, and above all from local genealogies, such as are the common ones (earth, water and clay) with which this project works. 

Innovate in cultural management through promotion of participatory methodologies

The cultural sector has tools, skills and knowledge to be the economic and professional sector that promotes participatory methodologies. Cultural mediation, as a professional profile, must be at the service of major global problems, such as sustainability. Therefore, ‘Art Living Lab for Sustainability’ is itself an experiment, with research practice based can see difficulties, tensions, possibilities of expanding the role of culture to environmental challenges. At the same time, it is intended that this knowledge have an impact in the design of local and national public policies, and in other economic areas.