2/2020 – The Right to Be Cold: Arctic people and climate change
“das goethe” is the Goethe-Institut’s cultural magazine. It appears twice a year as an insert in the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”.
The Right to Be Cold
The project “The Right to Be Cold” is looking at the climate crisis from a perspective that has so far received less attention: What does global warming mean for the people who have lived in the far north for many generations?
The consequences of climate change vary worldwide. In the photo gallery of this issue we show insights of the Indian photographer Arko Datto (* 1986). In his project “Shunyo Raja. Kings of a Bereft Land”, he documents the environmental changes that people in Ganges delta are exposed. In this delta, which is repeatedly affected by floods and the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forests in the world, are the most important Earth. At present, three quarters of the delta is at risk as a result of climate change. Datto’s Project was supported by the Goethe-Institut and the Prince Claus Fund and is shown within the multimedia online presentation “Take Me to the River”: takemetotheriver.net
Photo: Arko Datto
Shunyo Raja, Kings of a Bereft Land Behind the new dam is the ruin of a village school. Cranes in the distance stand on the building site for a power station. Matarbari, Bangladesh. 2020.
Photo: Arko Datto
Shunyo Raja, Kings of a Bereft Land A woman washes her laundry. Her house was destroyed when a protective dam broke. Sagar Island, India. 2019.
Photo: Arko Datto
Shunyo Raja, Kings of a Bereft Land The tidal currents reach as far as the northern Sundarbans, Dozens of miles from the coast. Here locals cross the river Datta at low tide. Sadhupur, India. 2019.
Photo: Arko Datto
Shunyo Raja, Kings of a Bereft Land After the hurricane: In the foreground the ruins of a cemetery, behind it the remains of a shelter. Matarbari, Bangladesh. 2020.
Photo: Arko Datto
Shunyo Raja, Kings of a Bereft Land After Hurricane Bulbul left a trail of destruction in the South Bengal region of destruction, a resident repairs an electrical line. Bakkhali, India. 2019.
“Coral reefs are particularly threatened by the consequences of climate change worldwide. By combining art, science and technology, we are raising awareness of the precarious situation of these ecosystems and developing new strategies for their restoration. Our objects consist of movable ceramic structures that are able to generate electricity with the help of ocean currents. As a result of electrolytic processes, magnesium and calcium minerals are deposited on these structures, enabling us to accelerate the growth of corals. The installation is intended to be used wherever there are reefs and to raise public awareness of these important ecosystems”.
The Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza was born in 1975 and lives in Mexico City. His works include in particular robot-like structures that generate their energy independently. He is always concerned with addressing the issue of sustainability. He works closely together with natural scientists and engineers in the implementation process. Esparza's project was supported by the Goethe-Institut and the Prince Claus Fund and is shown in the multimedia online presentation “Take Me to the River”: takemetotheriver.net
Video statements
How can the arts inspire and motivate us to meet the challenges of climate change?
We asked artists whose works where supported by the Goethe-Institut and Prince Claus Fund and which are shown within the multimedia online presentation “Take Me to the River” (starting 15 December 2020).
Take Me to the River Mohamed Mahdy
Idependent Documentary Photographer and Filmmaker
Take Me to the River Marta Andreu
Producer, lecturer and advisor creative documentary film
Take Me to the River Adrián Hartill
Educator and filmmaker
Take Me to the River Diana Rico
Artist and filmmaker
Take Me to the River Misha Vallejo
Audio-visual storyteller and visual artist
Take Me to the River Arko Datto
Visual artist, curator and educator
Entire issue
The tenth issue of “das Goethe” focuses on the particularly serious effects of climate change in the Arctic region. With the project “The Right to Be Cold”, we are looking at the climate crisis from a perspective that has so far received less attention: What does global warming mean for the people who have lived in the far north for many generations?
The title of the project “The Right to Be Cold” is derived from the long struggle of the Inuit for their rights in times of climate change. In her book of the same name (2015), Sheila Watt-Cloutier describes the link between climate change and human rights in a petition that she and 62 other Inuit from Canada and Alaska submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2005. Although the Commission did not accept the petition, there was a historic hearing on the legal implications of climate change for human rights. In her speech at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris on 3 December 2015, the former Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), Okalik Eegeesiak, called for climate change to be made a human rights issue and for the rights of indigenous peoples to be enshrined in the agreement. In her speech she said: "We have the right to be cold.
Contributions on the topic “digital civil society” with articles about, for example, digital colonialism, about “Wiki Loves Women,” a diverse scene of independent online media in Russia and an artwork by Julia Steinigeweg.
Printed editions of “das goethe”
das goethe 1/2020
The ninth issue of “das goethe” is devoted to experiences of war, oppression and flight in Europe: For the project “Tell me about Europe”, contemporary witnesses, born before 1945, tell about their lives – and reflect critically on their history against the background of the European idea.
The eighth issue of das goethe is devoted to the theme of the “digital civil society” with articles about, for example, digital colonialism, about “Wiki Loves Women,” a diverse scene of independent online media in Russia and an artwork by Julia Steinigeweg.
The seventh edition of “das goethe“ is dedicated to the theme “Cultures of Equality.” With contributions by, among others, the philosopher Philipp Hübl on the moral of the machine, an essay by anthropologist Dina Makram-Ebeid on the feminism debates north and south of the Mediterranean, a report by Klaus Bardenhagen on queer Taiwan and an interview with the director of the Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore in La Paz, Elvira Espejo.