With the Vienna Climate Summit, the Klima Biennale Wien introduces an interactive symposium format aimed at school and extracurricular education communities: a combination of good practice examples, workshops, and scientific, practical, and artistic impulses shall highlight how cultural education can support young people in their development. The objective of the event is to collectively find new approaches for communicating climate and scientific knowledge. Under the title Sensing Resonance, Nora Mayr curates encounters between the artists Imayna Caceres, Barbara Kapusta, Julian Palacz, and Borjana Ventzislavova with selected research initiatives of the CircEUlar project as part of the Vienna Climate Summit.
The aim of cultural education is to develop positive, future-oriented concepts for school and extracurricular learning programs. Together with various stakeholders from the fields of culture, science, education, and schools, the summit will provide new momentum to inspire their work and build networks. It is not just about imparting knowledge but also active participation to render structures visible and create synergies and alliances.
In its engagement with the topics of circular economy and climate change, the Klima Biennale Wien participates in the EU project CircEUlar, which is backed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Institute for Social Ecology (SEC) at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), among others. CircEUlar investigates the potential of circular economy strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It examines circularity and the associated impacts on emissions from a systems perspective while evaluating various transformation strategies.
A special science/art cooperation with CircEUlar takes place in the framework of the Klima Biennale, where new research strategies in the field of “circularity” are tackled by artists, further elaborated, and then presented for the first time at the summit.
Sensing Resonance
Resonance can be an echo, but it can also refer to when one body reverberates in unison with another. In psychology, resonance describes the moment in which a feeling or thought triggers something in us – when it resonates with us emotionally.
As part of the Klima Biennale Wien Nora Mayr curates with Sensing Resonance encounters between the artists Imayna Caceres, Barbara Kapusta, Julian Palacz, and Borjana Ventzislavova with selected research units of the CircEUlar project for the Klima Biennale 2024. The results of the artists’ four-month investigation will be presented for the first time at the Vienna Climate Summit on June 24 and 25, 2024 at KunstHausWien.
The objective of the four-year CircEUlar research and innovation campaign is to better understand the potential of circular economy strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, projects are underway to create detailed, high-resolution maps of the building stock and transport infrastructure in a total of 30 countries based on more than 200 million data sets from across Europe, or research that uses biographical interviews to investigate cultural, motivational, and structural factors that influence circular consumption practices.
Barbara Kapusta x “Narratives for Circular Economy-driven Net-Zero Emission Pathways”
How might possible futures unfold if we successfully adopt certain circular production and consumption practices? Building upon existing data and their potential for a net-zero emission trajectory, the research project “Narratives for Circular Economy-driven Net-Zero Emission Pathways” is developing narratives for various future scenarios to facilitate the integration of circular economy principles. At the heart of this groundbreaking research project lie principles such as dematerialization, extending the lifespan of material stocks, and enhancing waste treatment. Additionally, it examines the boundary conditions – geopolitical, economic, and psychological – that may either facilitate or impede change. Collaborating with stakeholders from policy, businesses, and civil society, the project aims to co-develop narratives that promote the acceptance and adoption of circular production and consumption practices in Europe and give us insights into potential future outcomes.
“Sensing Resonance with Barbara Kapusta” is developed by the artist in an exchange with Volker Krey (IIASA), Elena Verdolini (CMCC), and Marina Jovanovic (IIASA).
Barbara Kapusta
Barbara Kapusta (*1983 in Lilienfeld, Austria) lives and works in Vienna. The artist is particularly interested in the interplay between art and language. Often interweaving sculpture, moving image, and text, her works are characterized by a longstanding preoccupation with the relationship between body and materiality, language, and architecture. With science fiction narratives, sculptures of technoid beings, or slogans in stylized speech bubbles, Kapusta works pose questions about social life together in the face of multiple crises and address how language can structure community. Kapusta’s explorations are often imbued with queer agendas that embrace plurality and vulnerability. Kapusta’s most recent exhibitions include The Fragiles, Klosterruine Berlin (2023), WORDS DON’T GO THERE, Kunstverein Braunschweig (2023), and Futures, Kunsthalle Bratislava (2022). She is part of the first edition of the maltabiennale (2024).
“Narratives for Circular Economy-driven Net-Zero Emission Pathways”
by Volker Krey (IIASA), Harald Design (Empa), Adriana Gomez (IIASA), Eoin Grealis (LMU), Mafalda Coelho da Silva (INEGI), Alessio Mastrucci (IIASA), Gamze Ünlü (IIASA), Elena Verdolini (CMCC), Dominik Wiedenhofer (BOKU), Charlie Wilson (UOXF) – with input from the entire CircEUlar consortium.
Borjana Ventzislavova x “Circular Consumption Practices”
Sustainable consumption research has shown that living without a private car or embracing shared living arrangements are key steps toward a more sustainable future rooted in circularity. But why do people struggle to implement these practices in their daily lives? Using biographical interviews conducted across Western Europe, the project “Circular Consumption Practices” maps the realities of people’s daily consumption and their links with circularity. The interviews explore the reasons behind people’s engagement (or lack thereof) in promising practices such as living without a car, sharing living spaces, or buying and selling second-hand goods online. The study thus focuses on reduced consumption as key to successful climate action. Examining the cultural, motivational, and structural factors that influence an individual’s engagement in circular consumption practices, the study also examines the impacts of various policy measures on the acceptance, adoption, and effectiveness of reducing resource consumption.
“Sensing Resonance with Borjana Ventzislavova” is developed by the artist in an exchange with Henrike Rau (LMU) and Eoin Grealis (LMU).
Borjana Ventzislavova
Borjana Ventzislavova (*1976 in Sofia, Bulgaria) lives and works in Vienna. In her works, the artist playfully scrutinizes stereotypical roles and models of representation as well as the effects of political and social structures and control mechanisms on our existence. Her work deals with issues of mobility and transcending socio-geographical and cultural borders as well as the complex process of communication and translation. On the basis of documentary and narrative structures and constructions, she mixes stages and situations, still and moving images, text and sound to create case studies and stories that push the boundaries between the personal and the societal while exploring the interaction between the individual and the collective in the context of current events and history. Ventzislavova’s award-winning interdisciplinary works have been shown internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions and at diverse media art and film festivals including: Belvedere 21, Kunstforum Wien, Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, k-haus, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Kunstverein Baden, Museum of Contemporary Art Sofia, Austrian Cultural Forum Washington DC, and Project Space at Banff Centre, Canada.
“Circular Consumption Practices”
by social scientists Eoin Grealis (LMU) and Henrike Rau (LMU).
Julian Palacz x “Mapping Building Stocks across Europe”
According to research, global human-made mass now exceeds all living biomass. Specifically, building construction and maintenance are responsible for half of the global resource consumption. Against the backdrop of the seemingly simple question of what material stock we’re discussing in Europe, the research project “Mapping Building Stocks across Europe” aims to develop detailed, high-resolution maps of building stocks across Europe that may reveal unexpected spatial patterns. To achieve this immense task, the research team collected data from more than 200 million buildings in 30 countries. As a result, a comprehensive database (EUBUCCO v0.1) has been made available for various sustainability studies, including energy system analyses and risk assessments of natural hazards. Furthermore, the openly accessible building stock data can enable beneficial research on the most effective policy options.
The project “Sensing Resonance with Julian Palacz” is developed by the artist in an exchange with Nikola Milojevic-Dupont (MCC).
Julian Palacz
Julian Palacz (*1983 in Leoben, Austria) lives and works in Vienna and Munich. Palacz’s work focuses on the visualization and poetic representation of the data we leave behind, both digitally and physically, and is automatically collected by various protagonists. In his interactive online projects, digitally generated imagery, or sculptural experiments, Palacz creates playful approaches to technological realities, manipulates software, and experiments with algorithms. Since 2022, Palacz has been teaching at the University of Applied Arts Vienna on the subjects of art on the blockchain, decentralized Internet, and NFTs. His work has been shown at Casino Luxembourg, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, and Palazzo Zenobio, Venice, among others. Palacz completed his studies at the Department of Digital Arts, University of Applied Arts Vienna under Tom Fürstner, Peter Weibel, and Virgil Widrich.
“Mapping Building Stocks across Europe”
by Peter Berrill (TUB), Florian Nachtigall (MCC), Nikola Milojevic-Dupont (MCC), Jakob Napiontek (PIK), Geza Boi Brüser (MCC), and Felix Creutzig (MCC).
Imayna Caceres x “Biodiversity Footprint of Urban Consumption”
Many of us are aware that our dietary choices and consumption habits directly impact the climate and biodiversity. As major consumers of food, cities, in particular, play a crucial role, given they accommodate over half of the global population – a proportion expected to increase in the coming decades. But what exact numbers and relations are we discussing? In recent years, numerous research reports have honed in on the interplay between global ecological shifts and a sustainable and healthy food system in Vienna. These reports encompass analyses of global land use and its connection with consumption trends, which necessitate complex supply chains – for example, a spatially explicit assessment of the regional to global impacts of Viennese biomass consumption. They delve into the interwoven relationship between dietary shifts, regenerative agricultural practices, and the crises in climate and biodiversity. Notably, a paper titled “Demand Side Options to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Land Footprint of Urban Food Systems: A Scenario Analysis for the City of Vienna” highlights, for instance, that adopting reduced animal production and consumption could significantly decrease Vienna’s food system’s greenhouse gas footprint, with a vegan diet resulting in the largest reduction at 57%.
The project “Sensing Resonance with Imayna Caceres” is developed by the artist in an exchange with Lisa Kaufmann (BOKU) and Helmut Haberl (BOKU).
Imayna Caceres
Imayna Caceres (*1979 in Callao, Peru) lives and works in Vienna. Her work evolves through extensive research and in exchange with non-human beings and local ecosystems and in response to spiritual-political concerns. The artist explores counter-narratives of symbiotic worlds that transcend the modern age. Her artistic practice centers on emotional forms of knowledge that question prevailing paradigms of accumulation and dispossession – communal and interdependent existences come to the fore. Caceres’s work materializes through earth, water and pigments, through ceramics, clay, video, dance, and rituals.
Imayna Caceres is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with a background in sociology and is currently a candidate for a doctorate in philosophy at the same Academy. She is part of the TRENZA collective, a group of women with connections to Latin America and a member of the feminist eco-political collective Anticolonial Interventions in Vienna. Her Austrian and international exhibitions and projects include: Vital Knowledges (2023–2024) at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Vienna, Tratado material IV: Narcissus’echo (2023) at the Museo Convento San Francisco y Catacumbas, Lima, Peru, and the curated with Verena Melgarejo Weinandt.
Biodiversity Footprint of Urban Consumption
“Sensing Resonance with Imayna Caceres” is developed in response to the following research:
- Lauk et al., “Demand Side Options to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Land Footprint of Urban Food Systems: A Scenario Analysis for the City of Vienna,” Journal of Cleaner Production 359 (July 20, 2022): 132064.
- Mayer et al., “Impacts of Scaling up Agroecology on the Sustainability of European Agriculture in 2050,” EuroChoices 21, no. 3 (2022): 27–36.
- Cifuentes et al., “Diverse Types of Knowledge on a Plate: A Multi-Perspective and Multi-Method Approach for the Transformation of Urban Food Systems towards Sustainable Diets,” Sustainability Science (Feb. 10, 2023).
- Semenchuk et al., “The Global Biodiversity Footprint of Urban Consumption: A Spatially Explicit Assessment for the City of Vienna,” Science of The Total Environment 861 (Feb. 25, 2023): 160576.