Award 2021
Welcome to the Social Art Award 2021 – Online Gallery!
We are grateful for the many inspiring contributions from artists around the world. The selected works reflect a broad spectrum of contemporary social art practices and explore new relationships between humans, nature, and technology. They address themes such as ecological regeneration, climate justice, sustainable futures, social resilience, and more-than-human perspectives.
Below you will find the submissions from the Social Art Award 2021 – New Greening edition that passed the initial jury round. The Online Gallery offers public visibility to these works and encourages dialogue around their ideas and approaches; it does not replace the final jury decision.
Thank you to all artists for sharing your visionary and committed work. We invite you to explore the gallery and engage with the perspectives shaping New Greening.
31
Open Cave
615
Title:
Open Cave
Open Cave
Author:
Mercedes Balle
Mercedes Balle
Description:
In concrete cities, the wild is difficult to find - the parks are tidy and thoughtfully planted, the river is contaminated and busy; the buildings prevent us from seeing the open sky… Open Cave is made of re-used scaffolding netting and bamboo. Showed in a dark room, the video projected of the slow-moving sky is lost through the different layers of the net, emphasising the disconnection between the landscape and us. Busy in our everyday problems we often forget to look at the beauty of what surrounds us. With this piece I would like to invite the audience to take some time to observe the sky. The patient and observant viewer will be able to see the slow movement and changes of the clouds that shape the sky, a few birds passing through, and even a plane flying to an unknown destination. The arts play a crucial role in questioning problems and situations of the society we live in. Artists can address their practice towards social causes such as environmentalism and New Greening, encouraging the visitors to confront the complex challenges of the actual climate crisis and to imagine potential solutions. With my practice I want to get involved in the circular economy by re-using construction materials to evoke nature. I do so because I’m inspired and fascinated by nature and the sublime and I see the layers and layers of constructions in the cities as the biggest disconnection between the landscape and me. To make “Open Cave” I used discarded scaffolding netting from construction sites. This material is often invisible to the eyes, although it’s everywhere in the city covering huge buildings. This piece of scaffolding netting is just an example of the quantity of rubbish thrown every day to the landfills by the construction sector.
In concrete cities, the wild is difficult to find - the parks are tidy and thoughtfully planted, the river is contaminated and busy; the buildings prevent us from seeing the open sky… Open Cave is made of re-used scaffolding netting and bamboo. Showed in a dark room, the video projected of the slow-moving sky is lost through the different layers of the net, emphasising the disconnection between the landscape and us. Busy in our everyday problems we often forget to look at the beauty of what surrounds us. With this piece I would like to invite the audience to take some time to observe the sky. The patient and observant viewer will be able to see the slow movement and changes of the clouds that shape the sky, a few birds passing through, and even a plane flying to an unknown destination. The arts play a crucial role in questioning problems and situations of the society we live in. Artists can address their practice towards social causes such as environmentalism and New Greening, encouraging the visitors to confront the complex challenges of the actual climate crisis and to imagine potential solutions. With my practice I want to get involved in the circular economy by re-using construction materials to evoke nature. I do so because I’m inspired and fascinated by nature and the sublime and I see the layers and layers of constructions in the cities as the biggest disconnection between the landscape and me. To make “Open Cave” I used discarded scaffolding netting from construction sites. This material is often invisible to the eyes, although it’s everywhere in the city covering huge buildings. This piece of scaffolding netting is just an example of the quantity of rubbish thrown every day to the landfills by the construction sector.
Description:
In concrete cities, the wild is difficult to find - the parks are tidy and thoughtfully planted, the river is contaminated and busy; the buildings prevent us from seeing the open sky… Open Cave is made of re-used scaffolding netting and bamboo. Showed in a dark room, the video projected of the slow-moving sky is lost through the different layers of the net, emphasising the disconnection between the landscape and us. Busy in our everyday problems we often forget to look at the beauty of what surrounds us. With this piece I would like to invite the audience to take some time to observe the sky. The patient and observant viewer will be able to see the slow movement and changes of the clouds that shape the sky, a few birds passing through, and even a plane flying to an unknown destination. The arts play a crucial role in questioning problems and situations of the society we live in. Artists can address their practice towards social causes such as environmentalism and New Greening, encouraging the visitors to confront the complex challenges of the actual climate crisis and to imagine potential solutions. With my practice I want to get involved in the circular economy by re-using construction materials to evoke nature. I do so because I’m inspired and fascinated by nature and the sublime and I see the layers and layers of constructions in the cities as the biggest disconnection between the landscape and me. To make “Open Cave” I used discarded scaffolding netting from construction sites. This material is often invisible to the eyes, although it’s everywhere in the city covering huge buildings. This piece of scaffolding netting is just an example of the quantity of rubbish thrown every day to the landfills by the construction sector.
In concrete cities, the wild is difficult to find - the parks are tidy and thoughtfully planted, the river is contaminated and busy; the buildings prevent us from seeing the open sky… Open Cave is made of re-used scaffolding netting and bamboo. Showed in a dark room, the video projected of the slow-moving sky is lost through the different layers of the net, emphasising the disconnection between the landscape and us. Busy in our everyday problems we often forget to look at the beauty of what surrounds us. With this piece I would like to invite the audience to take some time to observe the sky. The patient and observant viewer will be able to see the slow movement and changes of the clouds that shape the sky, a few birds passing through, and even a plane flying to an unknown destination. The arts play a crucial role in questioning problems and situations of the society we live in. Artists can address their practice towards social causes such as environmentalism and New Greening, encouraging the visitors to confront the complex challenges of the actual climate crisis and to imagine potential solutions. With my practice I want to get involved in the circular economy by re-using construction materials to evoke nature. I do so because I’m inspired and fascinated by nature and the sublime and I see the layers and layers of constructions in the cities as the biggest disconnection between the landscape and me. To make “Open Cave” I used discarded scaffolding netting from construction sites. This material is often invisible to the eyes, although it’s everywhere in the city covering huge buildings. This piece of scaffolding netting is just an example of the quantity of rubbish thrown every day to the landfills by the construction sector.