THE MAGAZINE HERITAGE <strong>Art</strong> serving the environment Though the union of "art" and "sustainable development" seems rather vague, it has to be admitted that it is "on trend" and that when we look into it, this association is ancient, legitimate and, very simply, natural. But what does "art and sustainable development" really mean? "It would be better to talk about the environmental question, which is a broader, less political term," says environmental aesthetics specialist Nathalie Blanc, Director of Research at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), and author, among other books, of "Ecoplasties, <strong>Art</strong> et Environnement", written with art historian Julie Ramos. "There are several relationships between art and the environment, not merely one. There are militant artists for whom ecological issues are the central question. Their activist approach makes use of posters and <strong>net</strong>works. Others, sensitive to the materiality of places, speak poetically of an environmental form of aesthetic through their works. Still others work with scientists and create set-ups for maintaining the environment." For example, Gilles Bruni, Mark Dion, Olafur Eliasson, herman de Vries, and even Atelier Van Lieshout, Alexis Rockman, Iain Baxter&, Lucy+ Jorge Orta, go beyond practices mingling art and science. These go hand in hand with a historical approach as well, like that of the American artist Alan Sonfist, who collaborated in the layout of new parks in New York, which he enriched with work on the memory of biodiversity through his project "Time Landscape" (1965-1978). Others use symbols and the way works can trigger something in our consciousness. For instance with "Dynamo-Fukushima" presented at the Grand Palais in 2011, the plastic artist Yann Toma invited us to pedal away on bicycles that lit up light bulbs. A participative work designed to transmit artistic energy in a gesture of solidarity with Japan. A sensitive application of the "social ecology" and "grey" or mental ecology advocated by the philosopher Félix Guattari… In a word, all these proposals have the merit of engaging a dialogue with viewers, who can then provide their own interpretation. And some of the ideas aren't new. The American land art movement appeared in the Sixties. Does this mean that Robert Smithson was expressing a strong ecological awareness of nature in his "Spiral Jetty" of 1970? "His relationship with nature was ironic, and at its expense," says our specialist, Nathalie Blanc. Nevertheless, by creating external environments, and by drawing attention to industrial dumps within natural landscapes, land artists broke new ground. As with many fields, recognition was slow in coming. Nearly thirty years went by between the first works and the 49 soils from different areas of Japan, water from Chamarande and small glass dishes, Dimensions variables. Courtesy of the artist Adaptation for the estate of Chamarande. © Laurence Godart
HD HERITAGE THE MAGAZINE Antony Duchêne, encodage du simius cultivar, 2010, ficus bonsaï, fox fur, LCD screen, wiring, aluminium and glass case, 60 x 50 x 65 cm. CFDR collection. N° 25 I GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL 137 © Laurence Godart