Text by CLOT Magazine
In today’s age of ecological crisis, can we find an optimistic and empathetic way of engaging with our environment? To shed our human-centric attitudes and stop viewing the planet we live on as a commodity to be owned and traded but rather treat it as a living being in its own right. These are some of the questions raised by ecocinema, the new exhibition at TAXISPALAIS.
It urges us to stop fixating on our individual rights for a minute and instead considers humanity and its environment as a symbiotic system unable to exist without one another, to think of ourselves as simply on a spectrum together with other animals, plants, and microorganisms. Is it not too late to start acting responsibly, with benevolence and consideration to the environmental needs in the interest of all living things?
To explore these ideas, ecocinema has converted TAXISPALAIS into a cinema with 4 thematically different theatres soundproofed with organic materials. Here you can find a large range of genres, from moving image essays, documentaries, short feature films, conference interventions, and more on a variety of topics. Some films offer proposals that outline the ardent entanglements of an ecoconspiracy. In contrast, others reflect on the history of environmental activism, and still, others introduce more modern ideas of the ecological debate, like ecofeminism.
Many artists and activists have contributed to this project. One of them is Greta Thunberg, the Swedish student that has stirred up the world over the last year and has become one of the leading and most recognizable climate activists. She has already addressed the United Nations on the climate crisis and has been the face of Time magazine’s May 2019 issue, which dubbed her next-generation leader.
Alongside her, British filmmaker and journalist Adam Curtis showcase his mesmerizing video art that delves into the cultural and political subconscious of the public and picks apart the evolution of power dynamics present in our society. Joining them is Greta Gaard, a famed and respected ecofeminist writer, scholar, activist, and filmmaker whose theoretical work has pushed the boundaries of ecocriticism and ecocomposition and is regularly referred to in the fields of composition and literary criticism.
The exhibit is open to the public until November 10, 2019, at TAXISPALAIS, Innsbruck, Austria.
