The Role of Art and Cultural Institutions in the Global Eco-social Crises

Abstract

It has become clear that climate change is a great danger to the planet's ecosystem, and that the survival of life of all living species on Earth is endangered. Humanity has become aware of the crisis of the environment and its pollution, but not of the assumption that possible solutions to that crisis are related only to the change of mode of social production. Today's eco-social crisis is causally connected with global capitalism, that is, the mode of production that led to it. Therefore, it is a great misconception that the environmental crisis, which is perceived as a problem of all humanity, can be solved by the universalist attitude of the entire human species that strives to preserve the planet, if we ignore the social tensions in which we live. The systemic changes are needed to deal with the crisis of the environment and its pollution. Herewith, the role of culture and art cannot be neglected. Art that deals with environmental issues in an engaged way has the potential to rethink the field of political, as well as to politicize the attitude of art towards the problem of environmental protection. The clear and critical positions of artists in the public sphere initiate the necessary discussions on the eco-social crisis, but also establish new and different models of fair work with the environment. As for the cultural institutions, they need to rethink and re-imagine, but also to decolonize their methodology of working in order to face the eco-social crisis of today. Still, in many local contexts, the institutions cannot be considered independent from dominant ideological constructs they are bound to reproduce in the cultural sphere.