Projects tagged "Europe"

Russian ballerina dances on frozen waters to save Batareinaya Bay
Practitioner:
Ilmira Bagautdinova
Date:
Mar 14 2021
"A Russian ballerina from the renowned Mariinsky Theatre performed on the frozen waters of the Gulf of Finland in protest against a construction project that is likely to threaten the area’s natural habitat. Dancer Ilmira Bagautdinova traded some of the world’s most prestigious stages to perform on the frozen waters of Batareinaya Bay, after reports of plans to build a grain silo at the site emerged.
Climate Activists Throw Soup on Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ to Protest Fossil Fuels
Practitioner:
Just Stop Oil, Phoebe Plummer, Anna Holland
Date:
Oct 14 2022
On Friday, in room 43 of London's National Gallery, two young women opened cans of tomato soup and threw their contents onto Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting Sunflowers. The soup-throwers donned shirts displaying the logo of Just Stop Oil, an activist group that has been staging nonviolent demonstrations across the United Kingdom to protest the production of fossil fuels.
Europe's First Underwater Museum Offers A Stark Reminder of the Refugee Crisis
Practitioner:
James DeCairas Taylor
Date:
Feb 5 2016
Strap into your scuba gear — this museum is worth it. Installation began on Museo Atlantico — the latest project of underwater sculptor James deCaires Taylor — this week, 14 meters underwater in Lanzarote, one of the Spain’s Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. Taylor, whose creations have spanned the waters from the Bahamas to London, calls it the first underwater contemporary art museum in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.
Across Athens, Graffiti Worth a Thousand Words of Malaise
Practitioner:
Athenians
Date:
Apr 16 2014
ATHENS — The young man climbed a 30-foot scaffold on a building in central Athens and dipped a brush into a tray of gray paint. With rapid flicks of his wrist, he outlined a haunting image: a baby with two faces, looking simultaneously into an abyss and toward the sky, its vacant eyes searching for a future that was not there.
Ice Watch
Practitioner:
Olafur Eliasson
Date:
Dec 11 2018
Olafur Eliasson , the Danish-Icelandic artist. Some of his exceptional artworks focus on climate and environmental changes. In 2003, he installed The Weather Project , which remains one of Tate Modern’s popular installations. He is also known for his freestanding waterfall in Versailles , his installation in which he installed a riverbed in a museum , and his gigantic rainbow installation in Aarhus, Denmark.
Rain of Poems over London
Practitioner:
Colectivo Casagrande
Date:
Jun 26 2012
Rain of Poems took place over London on Tuesday 26th June 2012 at 9pm. One hundred thousand poems printed on bookmarks by over 300 contemporary poets from 204 countries fell from a helicopter over Jubilee Gardens during Poetry Parnassus as the sun sets. 
Shirin Neshat Addresses Iranian President at the WEF in Davos
Practitioner:
Shirin Neshat
Date:
Jan 22 2014
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian visual artist who works and resides in New York City. Her work refers to the social, political and religious codes of Muslim societies. She particularly addresses the psychological dimensions of women's experience in contemporary islamic societies. Using Persian poetry and calligraphy she has examined concepts such as martyrdom, space of exile, and the issues of identity and femininity.
3 Billboards Outside Grenfell, London
Practitioner:
Justice 4 Grenfell
Date:
Feb 16 2018
Activism imitated art when Justice 4 Grenfell protesters drove three provocative signs through the streets of London. In a clever nod to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the Oscar-nominated film directed by Martin McDonagh, the billboards were bright red, with black letters that read: 71 DEAD AND STILL NO ARRESTS? HOW COME?
The Democracy Machine
Practitioner:
Adam J Scarborough
Date:
Jun 27 2015
The Democracy Machine! is a performative sculpture that gives participants the opportunity to experience the thrill of democracy in action, in a competitive game that challenges people to work together toward understanding a better society. Using the spectacle and play of performance drawn from Las Vegas Casinos, gambling machines and game shows, The Democracy Machine!
San Fermin and the Fight for Bulls
Practitioner:
Animanaturalis, PETA
Date:
Jul 5 2019
In 2019 before the annual San Fermin festival 54 protesters from around the world representing AnimaNaturalis and PETA held a demonstration against the cruel sport of bullfighting. The celebration of culture and religion subsequent to the murder and torture of dozens of bulls is the spectacle of San Fermin that draws an army of international tourists to the small city of Pamplona.
2015 Die-In Protest Against Gender Violence
Practitioner:
Women in Black of Madrid
Date:
Sep 2 2015
On September 2nd 2015, a die-in protest to advocate against gender violence was carried out by a group called Women in Black (Olmedilla, 2015). This form of protest was likely inspired by other die-in protests in Spain and represented Spanish women who have died due to domestic violence (DV). A group of women dressed in black clothing gathered on the streets of Madrid. One by one they fell to the ground and lay there, acting dead.
Wyrd: Double, Double, Oil, and Trouble
Practitioner:
Reclaim Shakespeare Company
Date:
Jul 7 2012
"Twelve members of the 'Reclaim Shakespeare Company' staged an unexpected protest performance inside the 'Shakespeare: Staging the World' exhibition at the British Museum.
Peng! Collective Slams Shell at their PR event in Berlin
Practitioner:
Peng! Collective
Date:
Dec 11 2013
In 2013, Shell sent out press releases about their upcoming event, the Science Slam, which would aim to “celebrate the company’s responsible oil production” and “showcase ideas for renewable energy by scientists and students.” Essentially, Shell organized this event in the hopes that it would allow the multinational oil company to appear as if it is actually concerned about the environment and finding alternatives to oil.
Ice Watch
Practitioner:
Olafur Eliasson
Date:
Feb 13 2018
From Public Delivery: For Ice Watch (2014), he extracted 30 blocks of glacial ice from the waters of Greenland and in 2018 strategically placed them in front of Tate Modern in London . The ice was left here to melt. Ice Watch was to inspire public action against climate change, advocating for a rapid public response.
Wind Trees in Paris
Practitioner:
New Wind
Date:
Mar 23 2015
Traditional wind turbines may require vertical shafts higher than 40m and spinning blades over 50m long in order to capture wind energy efficiently. While these devices are some of the best at capturing clean energy, their height and shape put large limitations on the way that they can be used.
After 38 attacks on art, climate protesters have fallen into big oil’s trap – it’s time to change tack
Practitioner:
Last Generation and Just Stop Oil
Date:
Apr 1 2022
How many of the 38 environmental protests staged in museums in 2022 can you remember? How many of the more recent ones only generated widespread outrage? Did any of them lead to tangible change? The protesters’ cause is serious, the threat is very real, the message is important and urgent. But is it not getting through to the public?
This Artist Captured the Non-Stop Flow of Plastic Pollution
Practitioner:
Benjamin Von Wong
Date:
Oct 14 2021
Benjamin Von Wong’s latest art-as-activism installation looks like something Photoshopped onto reality. A large brass-looking faucet, suspended in the air, pours a river of plastic out of its spout.
Vangardist HIV+ Magazine
Practitioner:
Vangardist
Date:
May 4 2015
HIV is still among the top 10 leading causes of death in the world, ranking sixth with around 1.5 million deaths each year. Around 35 million people are currently infected with HIV, and cases are worryingly on the rise—it is far from old news. Determined to change this, a magazine has embarked on a bold new campaign in which 3,000 copies will be printed using ink mixed with HIV-infected blood.
The Mischief Makers
Practitioner:
Art & Activism Caravan
Date:
Aug 17 2006
The Mischief Makers built a giant bird as a symbolic way of opening up Serb borders and made an impressive mosaic on the same theme, possibly to be used in a new youth centre. Clowns trained and joked about at the final parade to end the week of workshops. An other impressive feature of the activities in Novi Sad was the quickly formed samba band, which did a couple of stunning performances in the centre of town.
Refugees tell their stories by starring in Danish ballet
Practitioner:
Christian Lollike, Royal Danish Theatre
Date:
Jan 29 2016
As Denmark moves to deter refugees from crossing its borders, a new theater production dramatizing their plight seeks to change how many in the country perceive their new neighbors. Uropa: An Asylum-Seeker’s Ballet, [is] a dance piece performed in part by refugees portraying themselves.
Protests in Belfast and Dublin after rugby players' rape acquittal
Practitioner:
public
Date:
Mar 29 2018
Protests have been held in cities on either side of the Irish border after two Ireland rugby internationals were acquitted of rape. Up to 1,000 people took part in a demonstration in Belfast on Thursday after a jury’s unanimous verdicts on Wednesday in the case of Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding, who were accused of raping a woman in June 2016.
Degrees of My Deaf Rage
Practitioner:
Christine Sun Kim
Date:
Sep 8 2018
Christine Sun Kim's series Degrees of My Deaf Rage is a series of charcoal drawings of charts that depict the artist's varying degrees of what she calls "deaf rage." These frustrations are categorized by situations: deaf rage in the art world. institutional deaf rage, deaf rage concerning interpreters, deaf rage while traveling, deaf rage within educational settings, deaf rage in everyday situations.
Rave Against the Right
Practitioner:
Görlitz Stays Colorful collective
Date:
Jul 31 2023
At first glance, it seemed like any other Monday evening in Görlitz, the most eastern town in Germany — where Poland sits just across the river. It was July 31, and a couple hundred people had gathered as part of the so-called Monday demonstrations to protest refugees, the COVID-19 vaccine and the government’s green energy politics.
Sarah Lucas: Self Portrait of Fried Eggs
Practitioner:
Young British Artists (YBA)
Date:
Dec 1 1996
Since her breakout show, Penis Nailed to a Board, held at south London’s City Racing gallery in 1992, British artist Sarah Lucas has never shied from making a statement. Working with sculpture, photography and installation, the Goldsmiths graduate and prominent YBA member has honed her provocative and playful oeuvre to question culturally prescribed notions of femininity and sex.
Tree Felling in Bialowieza Forest
Practitioner:
Greenpeace
Date:
Aug 11 2010
Greenpeace advocates displayed a banner outside of the Ministry of the Environment in Warsaw. The banner reads "I love primeval forests" to protest against tree felling in Bialowieza Forest. Protesters dressed as construction workers wearing hard hats and scaling the Ministry of the Environment building on harnesses.

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