Today, April 15, celebrates World Art Day, an opportunity for Surfrider Europe to make a throwback on the Art Campus project. The Art Campus offers an immersion in the universe of committed artists by combining both, a sensitive approach to the environment, as well as a reflection upon the role we can take in protecting it. Let’s embark on a retrospective journey of the different exhibitions the Art Campus has hosted in these first few months of 2022
RAISING AWARENESS THROUGH ART
Art has often been opposed to reason. It awakens emotions and brings out different interpretations in each of us. A work of art travels through the ages and through different civilizations, and often-tells its own story.
Thus, when we think of raising awareness on environmental issues, art comes as an ideal medium to educate differently.
The concept of ecological art is part of a larger process of environmental awareness-raising . Born in the United States at the end of the 1960’s, it differs from other artistic trends because of its respect for the environment in the process of artistic creation, in line with an ecological message, ecological art pays a tribute to nature.
“The search for innovation to involve the greatest number of citizens is part of our DNA. This is how the Surfrider Art Campus project was born, a device designed to use art and the creative approach as a driver for a change in behavior. Art thus becomes a link, a prism between Man and his environment, a bridge between different spheres: educational, cultural and scientific.” Boris Masseron, Head of the South Aquitaine Campus and the Art Campus
Committed and engaged art allows us to transmit knowledge, but above all, a vision of the world surrounding us. It tends towards a reconnection between the human being and the living.
Surfrider Europe, with the Art Campus project, seeks to provide a different approach to the protection of the Ocean. Always within the framework of its missions of awareness-raising and education, this mediation by art aims at deconstructing our relationship with our territories to propose more harmonious and respectful solutions.
10 YEARS OF ART FOR THE OCEAN
In 2022, the Art Campus celebrates its 10th anniversary, and its success continues to grow year after year with 5 million people sensitized last year alone.
“Art allows us to impact in another way, in a less didactic way by reaching the emotional.” – Maurane Bagnarosa, Art Campus Project Manager
Thinking of our relationship with the environment, with the ocean, we are led to rethink our role and our impact. Originally, the Art Campus focused on the Basque territory, but over the years it has opened its doors to new horizons with itinerant exhibitions throughout Europe. The project now aims at using art as a support, a way to raise awareness on societal issues, in this case the conservation of the ocean.
By building collaborations with artists through long-term projects, the Art Campus opens its doors to all talents who wish to develop their works around the protection of the Ocean.
Do you have an artistic project that aims & to raise awareness for the defense of the Ocean?
Do not hesitate to contact the Art Campus to discuss and present your project.
THROWBACK TO THE LATEST EXHIBITIONS
Since the beginning of the year, two exhibitions have already been held at the Biarritz headquarters by the Art Campus.
The first one, “Line up” is a photographic series dedicated to the waves and the coastline, the surfers’ playground, but also to our precious planet. A true ode to the ocean, this compilation lists the most magnificent line-ups in the world. A rare result of the random and tumultuous interaction of the forces of nature, the line-up represents the area where the waves begin to break.
The second, ” Sédimental ” reflects on the relationship between sediments and human actions. The human being is invited into the geological transformation of the world. The traces of our activity transform the very shape of the geography. They are movements of materials, industrial wastes, mineral withdrawals. Over time, a natural and artificial sedimentation takes place, a phenomenon that is part of the Anthropocene.
You can also visit the exhibition L’Invisible devient Visible at the Pavillon de l’Eau in Paris for photographs of the microscopic universe that makes up our Ocean, a zoom on the infinitely small which holds incredibles treasures.
