Symposium: From Echoes to Slogans
The climate crisis is not the result of “natural” processes or the responsibility of the anthropos as a whole, but rather the product of an extractivist mindset inherent to capitalism and entrenched in its imperial historical temporality. Although its impact is now felt across the globe, it disproportionately affects marginalised communities, especially in the Majority World. This collapse stems not only from the segmentation of human societies but also from a philosophical separation and hierarchisation of the human from its habitat — a schism between “culture” and “nature”. The uses and understandings of technology — especially visible now in this so-called era of hyper-connectivity and hyper-information — actively shape these fragmentations and transactional connections. Moreover, the loss of meaning produced by different processes of alienation both causes and perpetuates the crisis of our planet and humanity
There is an unquestionable urgency to restore and rethink the relations we wish to establish within human and with more-than-human communities. But how do we respond to such a systemic crisis?
Artists and cultural practitioners are essential to responding to this multidimensional reality — through approaches ranging from hands-on interventions to expansive reflections; from examining the microscopic to connecting broader communities; from documenting to advocating for climate justice; and from raising awareness to imagining paths forward. However, while they are often called upon to react and to propose futures, they work within contexts of financial insecurity, political precarity, and time constraints. The art industry itself is not exempt from the very systems of extraction, acceleration and confusion that have contributed to the environmental crisis — in fact, it often reproduces it.
From Echoes to Slogans – artists responding to crises brings together CAREC’s fifteen creatives to explore three crises linked to climate collapse. Through a manifesto, roundtable conversations, panels, performances, and a slogan workshop, the programme creates an experimental space — blending digital and analogue methods — where artists and audiences can explore technology, our connections to the environment and universe, and the potential of art to move beyond “echo chambers,” create imaginaries, and confront environmental breakdown.
Full programme10:30 – 11:00 Walk-in
11:00 – 11:15 Introduction
11:15 – 11:30 Manifesto
11:30 – 12:30 Responses to the Crisis of Technology
12:30 – 13:00 Grandmothers’ Song by Leonel Vásquez
13:00 – 13:45 Lunch
13:45 – 14:15 Puppet Theatre The Root You Pulled Out Is Not a Hole in My Land, It Is a Tunnel by Daniela Ortiz
14:15 – 15:15 Responses to the Crisis of Relations
15:15 – 15:30 Break
15:30 – 16:30 Responses to the Crisis of Meaning
16:30 – 18:00 Slogan Workshop: Voicing, Listening, Responding
18:00 – 18:15 Closing by Julio Serrano Echeverría
18:15 – 19:00 Final Toast
This event is part of Cultural & Artistic Responses to the Environmental Crisis (CAREC), a year-long programme aimed at accelerating engaged community-based cultural practices with a focus on climate justice that acknowledges the social, political and economic dimensions of the environmental crisis. Through this programme, the Prince Claus Fund creates an interdisciplinary platform to support critical artistic work, stimulate cross-disciplinary exchange, and centre non-hegemonic forms of knowledge to envision alternative models of climate justice.
Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK); Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.
