We won’t fly for art
April 12th, 2009
For 6 months we will not take an aeroplane for the sake of art. For the next 6 months we will find other ways to visit and participate in exhibitions, fairs, conferences, meetings, residencies. We will not fly for inspiration, nor to appreciate, buy or sell art.
But only if 6 others will do the same AND replicate this pledge.
This pledge is designed for exponential growth so if you persuade another 6 people to do the same, within a year you could be one of millions of people changing the way the artworld works. So sign up, create a replica pledge and share your own experiences, observations and arguments towards reducing art flights. Post a link to it in the comment box so others can find their way to it.
This is a public art experiment in the de-escalation of carbon-fuelled, high altitude, high-velocity, global art careering. For six months we choose to cover less physical distance, move more slowly between destinations, to look futureward with more attention to the view from the ground and the network, for ways to connect with others around the world.
Who can sign up to this pledge? Any individual involved in the arts: artist (in the broadest sense), curator, art administrator, art appreciator, gallerist, art critic, art historian, art academic, art technician, art security, art transporter etc. Whether you currently fly for art 50 times a year or never, your engagement will change things by making your position in the artworld visible and by offering an alternative perspective. If you work with others you may need to completely revise your schedules and budgets and lobby for the right not to fly.
This is to light the blue touch paper of Gustave Metzger’s Reduce Art Flights campaign using the generative and viral capabilities of social networks. We want to know more about the impact of air-flight on the artworld (and beyond). We intuit that abstaining from air flight will motivate and enable people (with more time, money, energy and attention) to relate differently to their own local cultures and to connect more imaginatively to other cultures.
An Artwork- Reduce Art Flights by Gustave Metzger
Sustainable Development: Social science on the environmental impact of economic growth- Why Politicians Dare Not Limit Economic Growth by Tim Jackson
Investigative Journalism: What can we do to stop climate change?
Heat (2006) by George Monbiot summarised and reviewed here
Campaign to bring ‘the aviation industry down to earth’- Plane Stupid
