JUST ART. Creating Common Grounds for Climate Justice Through Artistic Research.

In the Kingdom of the Netherlands, transformation towards a Climate Just Society is hampered by a lack of awareness and a lack of consensus on how to act. While many feel overwhelmed by the complexity of climate justice, Art & Artistic Research have been actively pursuing it. Art can offer imaginative scenarios and unconventional approaches, enhance awareness, imagine futures, and empower people to bridge the gap from awareness to action. But since such efforts and activities are incidental and fragmented, society has little knowledge about the methods and potentials of Art & Artistic Research, missing out on a powerful ally in the pursuit of transformative pathways towards a climate just future. JUST ART positions Art & Artistic Research as key agents in challenging the status quo, bringing them into the orbit of decision-makers and society at large. The consortium joins a large number of researchers, artists and societal partners who already engage in moving climate justice forward through artistic co-creation in regions where the crisis is acutely felt. Spanning Aruba’s coral reefs, Brabant’s nitrogen hotspots, Northern wetlands, rurban landscapes and more, JUST ART develops new and furthers existing artistic research projects and public initiatives and de-isolates and interconnects them. Based on best practices, JUST ART co-creates a durable infrastructure and a theory-to-practice framework that integrates the tenets of climate justice with those of artistic research. Both will subsequently serve and empower stakeholders to take transformative action through art: from plastic waste-costumes of Curaçao's Garbage Queen to the gardens of the Rijksmuseum; from seaweed harvests in the Waddenzee to healthy soils in polders; from circular wool of municipal sheep and vibrant climate-data renderings on Aruba to multispecies theatre in Amsterdam, JUST ART will contribute to just chains of production, just transitions, just cultural practices, and just futures for all.