Next Season: Art and science in the face of the climate future
The exhibition showcases works depicting climate change adaptation and mitigation developed by eight artists during residencies in some of the most important Costa Rican scientific centres.
The exhibition Next Season: Art and Science in the Face of the Climate Future kicked off on April 22 at the Costa Rican Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MADC, its Spanish acronym) in San Jose. Open to the public through June 19, the exhibition showcases works depicting climate change adaptation and mitigation developed by eight artists during residencies in some of the most important scientific centres in the Central America country.
Eight Costa Rican artists, selected in January through a public call, are exhibiting their climate crisis work developed during residencies in the scientific centres. From February to April, Elia Arce, Carlos Fernández, Esteban Hidalgo, Sara Mata, Rosella Matamoros, Óscar Ruiz Schmidt, Jonathan Torres, and Christian Wedel developed projects that combined their artistic research interests with climate crisis information and data.
Through their artwork, the artists pose urgent questions about the impact of climate change on various aspects of our lives, such as our interactions with ecosystems, in addition to proposing new dialogues between arts and science. With their cross-disciplinary approaches, the eight pieces exhibit different strategies to address the climate crisis, from direct confrontation to a thought-provoking poetic approach.
Watch the video on the Next Season project:
Undertaken by the Directorate of Climate Change of the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Next Season aims to explore the intersections of contemporary art research and the sciences in light of climate change along with the concepts of adaptation, mitigation, and climate action. This project is financed in part by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany via the NDC Partnership Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP).
Artists participating in the exhibition Next Season: Art and Science in the Face of the Climate Future (Photos: Pablo Cambronero)
Carlos Fernández/"Drawing links," created as part of his residency with the National Climate Change Metrics System (SINAMECC) and the Centre for Geophysical Research (CIGEFI).
Christian Wedel/"Tropical Futurology," created as part of his residency with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET).
Esteban Hidalgo/"Climate Approaches," created as part of his residency with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET).
Elia Arce/"Bodies of water” created as part of her residency with the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología (CIMAR).
Jonathan Torres/"New faunas. Resilience and adaptation," created as part of his residency with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET).
Sara Mata/"I also disappear when you can see me," created as part of her residency with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET).
Rosella Matamoros/"The embrace. Long before the death of the last tree . . . a forest has already disappeared," created as part of her residency with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET).
Óscar Ruiz Schmidt/"Sargassum forest," created as part of his residency with the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología (CIMAR).