Climate Action Through Poetry and Photography
The time we live in has inevitably brought knowledge of climate change: the facts are everywhere and accessible to everyone, we read about them in the media, we hear warnings from experts, but we have become familiar with new circumstances from our own experience, too. The time of skepticism is behind us. We are aware of climate change, locally and globally. Few are those with doubts from the recent past and questions about whether climate change is real or just sensationalism that lasts for a season. It is clear: summers start earlier and end later, the number of hot days in a year is drastically higher than in previous years, we face storms like never before, we witness floods and extreme disasters. We realize that the weather is much more unpredictable than it used to be, and we notice that we talk much more often about the weather with each other.
"That's exactly what I need today: to be with the rain." Stevan Raickovic
Climate change has become a new Esperanto – a newly coined, common language that we quickly learn. It has become a universal theme of humanity. Proportional to the factual knowledge and awareness of the existence of climate change, the present moment is marked by a tendency to escape from this tiresome and pessimistic theme. In a way, we are saturated with it because it is a ubiquitous reminder of a future we do not want. Our current task is not only to fight against their acceleration but also to accept the existing circumstances and better adapt to them, while being aware that it is essential for our survival not to adapt completely.
"The river flows through through the middle of our body, the same way it runs through the middle of our land." Natalie Diaz
How do we live in such a world without becoming indifferent or hopeless? The task is complex and delicate, marking our entire present. Precisely because this theme has become universal and applies to all of us without exception, the language of art becomes especially important in reaching a deeper, more essential level of understanding the present and the position of humans in it. Through art, we examine the delicate nuances between insurmountable limits and the existing possibilities offered by the world we live in. Art raises burning questions: what do we offer to the future of the world we live in? Who decides on that? What are the scope and limits of our responsibility? Are we all equally responsible?
"How can I translate—not in words but in belief—that a river is a body, as alive as you or I, that there can be no life without it?" Natalie Diaz
Art is necessary for making this theme present and awakening – less on a rational, and more on an emotional level; through the perspective and comprehensiveness of the artistic approach, the goal is to make it more receptive. This open call pertains to visual and poetic language, aimed at regional photographers and poets.
"A river is a body of water. It has a foot, an elbow, a mouth. It runs. It lies in a bed. It can make you good. It has a head. It remembers everything." Natalie Diaz
Artists are invited to visually and poetically explore themes and phenomena indirectly and directly related to climate change in their works. These could be rain, storms, rivers, thunder, shores, soil, erosion, clouds, wind, water... everything that climate change encompasses, alters, shapes, and brings into focus. These phenomena and concepts can also be treated metaphorically.
➤ Who can apply? Photographers and poets of all ages from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, and Macedonia.
➤ Application must include:
- up to four works; photographers send up to four photographs, and poets up to four poems of up to 10 verses, free or rhymed, and
- a short biography of up to 200 words.
➤ Each photograph will form a whole with the poet's verses. Photographers and poets can submit their works separately, but they can also join forces and submit a joint work (photograph and verses). The jury will make the final decision on the photograph and poem that will constitute one artistic unit.
➤ Selected works will be published as a special edition within the European project Climateurope2 and presented at an exhibition within the Climate Festival in Belgrade, in the summer of 2025. The best selected works (photograph and poem) will be awarded a cash prize.
➤ The deadline for applications is October 31, 2024, and you can apply by clicking on the link.
➤ The jury members are the following :
- Ljiljana Ilic, translator and poet
- Dr. Marjana Brkic, Head of the Climateurope2 project
- Prof. Dr. Vladimir Djurdjevic, climatologist
- Dobrivoje Lale Eric, art historian
- Marko Risovic, photographer
„Pada i padala je. Jedna stvar je bitna:
u prošlosti našoj kiša se događa“
Horhe Luis Borhes
