On July 1 at 17.30, we look forward to welcoming you to the Lampa festival in Cēsis for a talk on “Contemporary Art and Ecology.” In this talk, curator and researcher Ieva Astahovska and artists Linda Boļšakova, Maija Demitere and Inga Erdmane will share their experiences and ideas about the role of contemporary art in understanding and problematising ecological issues, involving reflection, imagination and experimental approaches.
Art that engages with environmental and ecological issues entails both participation in socio-political developments and the politicisation of the role of art. It recognises the relationships nature and ecology have with the economy, technology, culture and other realms of human existence. However, contemporary art deals with ecological issues in a different way than, for example, the mass media or the entertainment industry, which either ignore climate change or base their content on and financially benefit from apocalyptic scenarios suggesting that environmental catastrophe is inevitable. By integrating reflection, imagination and experimental approaches, art can play a transformative role in understanding ecological issues.
