International Symposium on
Sustainability and Contemporary Art

Central European University Budapest
Thursday 30 - Friday 31 March, 2006

www.translocal.org/sustainability

Sustainability has been at the top of the global environmental agenda for
more than a decade, but an understanding of ecological responsibility is
only now beginning to have a visible impact on society and culture. The
symposium will explore the radical and innovatory power of the concept of
sustainability, which implies a strategy for integrative development in
harmony with nature and a reinvigorated notion of global justice on the
basis of shared environmental responsibility. Our intention is to create a
transdisciplinary space for discussion of the fundamental issues bridging
the fields of art and environment and an opportunity to be inspired by the
response of leading international artists to the challenge of
sustainability.

Presentations by artists will show how contemporary art might engage with
the full implications of sustainability beyond visualising ecological
disasters and illustrating environmental campaigns. The innovative
practices featured range from finding ways to foster cultural diversity,
exploring new environmental notions such as sustainable pleasure,
developing alternative concepts of wealth, and finding out new ecological
uses of space. The role of the curator in engaging with environmental
issues will also be examined, while aestheticians and environmentalists
will offer theoretical perspectives on art and sustainability.

Issues and questions likely to be addessed by the symposium include: What
is sustainable art and how is sustainability involved in the practices of
contemporary art? To what extent do global environmental challenges demand
radical changes in human activity and what implications does this have for
artistic practice? How can contemporary artists contribute to the critique
of technocratic approaches to environmental problems? Is fostering human
creativity the key to finding lasting solutions to environmental problems?
How much overlap is there between the interests and approaches of
environmentalists and artists?

Invited speakers include:
Heath Bunting and Kayle Brandon (UK)
Jonathan Dronsfield (UK)
Miklos Erhardt (H)
David Haley (UK)
Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison (USA)
Tamás Kaszás and Viktor Kotun (H)
Hildegard Kurt (GER)
Kristina Leko (CRO)
Edit Molnar (H)
Nils Norman (UK)
Marko Peljhan (SLO)
Renata Poljak (CRO)
Rúrí (IS)
Diane Warburton (UK).

The symposium on Sustainability and Contemporary Art is organised by
curators Maja and Reuben Fowkes together with the Department of
Environmental Sciences and Policy and the Centre for Arts and Culture CEU.
Papers and reflections on the symposium will be published in a special
issue of Praesens: Contemporary Central European Art Review. Alongside the
symposium, the exhibition Endangered Waters by the artist Ruri will be held
at Liget Galeria Budapest.

To reserve your place at the symposium, please contact
Alan Watt
Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy CEU

wattaceu.hu

www.translocal.org/sustainability