Creative Approach

Prix Coal 2014: PARIS

Prix_Coal_2014_appelThe COAL Art & Environment Prize reveals the wealth of answers brought by artists to current environmental issues. Since 2010, the COAL Prize has honored  ten projects related to environmental issues each year, which are selected through a call for international projects and in which hundreds of artists from around the world participate. One artist is awarded the Prix COAL worth € 10,000 by a jury of personalities from the art and ecology. In 2013 COAL price on the theme  Adaptation , was presented to Lawrence Tixador for its “transitional architecture.”

In 2014, the theme of the COAL Prize is PARIS . Environmental and societal issues of the French capital are numerous: pollution, energy, sprawl, transportation, land use, biodiversity loss, climate change adaptation, etc.. A creative approach to ecology emerges in new social organizations, alternative modes of productions, collaborative ways of living and working that promote usability as well as the happy sobriety. Having long has Paris been the city of light, the symbol of industrial modernity and progress… will she once again shine in the post embodying ecological modernity?

Paris, one of the world capitals of culture and creation, invites artists in 2014 to demonstrate the central role that art can play in a sustainable and responsible city. Artists, predominantly urban, heirs of the diversity embodied in Paris are invited to shake, rethink, reinvent the capital, in a multipolar world and connected to define a fairer and radiant urban culture in harmony with nature.

The COAL Price 2014 will be presented in Paris on 13 February 2014, at a ceremony attended by the ten selected artists and personalities of art and sustainable development.

Established in 2010 by the COAL association, Coalition for art and sustainable development, COAL Price Art and Environment, is under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and the National Center for Visual Arts.

Download the call for projects pdf

Schedule

The closing date of the call for projects is January 5, 2014 at midnight .
COAL The award will be presented February 13, 2014.

The selection committee and the jury will be announced shortly.

See the jury of the previous edition

Selection of projects

The criteria for selection of projects take into account the artistic value, relevance (understanding of the issues), originality (ability to suggest approaches, thematic or angles of original view), pedagogy (the ability to convey a message , awareness), social and participative approach (engagement, testimony, efficiency, societal dynamics), eco-design and feasibility.

The COAL Price supports artistic projects in progress or planned. Its endowment of € 10,000 does not necessarily intended to cover all production costs of the project and should be considered as an aid to development.

Beyond the presentation of COAL Prize, the call for proposals is also an opportunity to promote artists involved and witness the creative potential of art on the theme of the environment.

Coal wants to promote the networking of these artists with scientists and stakeholders, produces, develops and promotes projects identified by the call for proposals in the context of exhibitions, events and commands. Projects may be a broadcast on resource 0, national arts and ecologies platform, with the consent of the artists.

Application

The application shall consist of the following documents together in a single pdf file ( The application should not exceed 20 pages):

-A summary description of the proposed and illustrated with his artistic dimension and put into perspective with the environmental issue and the annual theme project
– Two high-definition visuals illustrating the project
-A note on the technical characteristics of the project, particularly in terms of infrastructure and means of production
, a budget estimate;
-A Curriculum Vitae and an artistic record.

Submission of applications

All proposals must be submitted on the server COAL before 5 January 2014.

> Put your online folder on the server COAL

Special Conditions

By participating in this call, the authors projects expressly authorize the COAL association publish, reproduce and publicly distribute all or part of the elements of their project for all purposes related to the promotion and communication of project COAL in all media by all media, in all countries and for HOW LONG LEGAL COPYRIGHT. Projects submitted and not selected will remain in the archives of the COAL association. However, they remain the property of their authors. Participation in this call for projects resulting full acceptance of the above conditions.

Contact

For any request please write to:  contact (at) projetcoal.fr

ASEF: Publication of the Connect2Culture dossier

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Arts. Environment. Sustainability. How can Culture Make a Difference?

There is a growing awareness that culture and the arts can help dealing with global challenges by means of alternative, creative approaches to pressing problems. Therefore society as well as governmental stakeholders start to see culture as an important value for sustainable development, environment, education, health and social cohesion.

After a four years program investigating the role of arts and culture in society, the Asian Europe Foundation (ASEF) published and presented the Connect2Culture dossier: Arts. Environment. Sustainability. How can Culture Make a Difference? at the ASEF-supported roundtable at the 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture in Melbourne, Australia.

The Connect2Culture programme was initiated in order to answer the question which role culture plays in the global debate on environmental sustainability. In the course of the program, Asian as well as European experts from all fields addressed issues related to art and environmental sustainability through artistic projects, workshops and policy meetings. The program has facilitated bi-regional dialogue and collaboration on the value of culture and the arts.

The resulting dossier is a summary of  ASEF’s work with arts and environment in the last four years and a reflection on the issues raised by the people involved. It constitutes the reaffirmation of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainability and is expected to serve as inspiration for further discussions and cooperation, especially with the imminent United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June 2012.
The dossier includes discussion papers from two Connect2Culture projects: Arts, Culture and Sustainability: Visions for the Future and The Art of Sustainable Living: A Creative Approach to Global Social and Environmental Crises. Furthermore it contains a collection of visions for the future, an overview of the ASEF projects as well as a directory of cultural professionals and ASEF partners.

Culture has an instrumental part connecting many areas of human development such as education, human rights, economy, sustainable development, health awareness and environment, as well as science and technology. For David Haley and Jaya Iyer, who held the workshop Climate Leaders: Release Your Creative Powers – How can art enhance our ability to think and act differently? in Bangkok in 2009, it is of high importance to include artists in the global debate: “A dialogue is not so much about generating new knowledge, as it is about changing the way we think.”

As a result of the Connect2Culture programme a strong network of almost 100 professionals in arts and culture was established, which is committed to strengthen the voice of arts and culture. These experts share the belief that the arts and culture sector can play an active role to support the identification of, engagement with and positive adaptation to important changes in our societies.
Ada Wong (politician, environmentalist, educationalist and cultural advocate) is one of the experts that took part in the workshop Arts, Culture and Sustainability: Building Synergies between Asia and Europe held in Copenhagen in 2009. She states:
„While the environmental lobby targets and criticizes governments and vested interests, the arts and cultural sector can work with the people and start,bottom up, from the community. The cultural sector is a natural change agent, instigator and provocateur in paradigm shifts and mindset changes.“

Sacha Kagan (founding coordinator of the international level of Cultura21) points out the challenge that society has to face in dealing with complexity:
“The deep and qualitative complexity of the world does not fit with the clear, coherent, uni-dimensional logic of theories and world views we have learned to design. We have to engage in an unprecedented creative leap towards complexity, which will require giant transdisciplinary advances in all cultural sectors (and especially in arts education and education through art&science) or we will miss the 2050 mark for an “ecological age”.”

As Rosina Gomez-Baeza Tinturé, director of the LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries (Spain), stated during the 2009 Connect2Culture project, “The mission of artists is to inspire, educate and engage themselves with society. Creativity is the capacity to produce things that are new and of value; it is the capacity to reach new conclusions and come up with original solutions to problems.”

You are able to download the dossier at:
http://asef.org/index.php/projects/themes/arts-culture/1999-connect2culture-at-the-world-summit-on-arts-and-culture

Further information can also be found here.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21