gaia - mairie de paris

Gaïa is a travelling eco-exhibition that explores the relation between Gender and Ecology throughout a selection of 28 international artists. The project has been curated for the City of Paris during Cop21. It has evolved in a collaboration with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology for a study that investigates the capacity from an artwork related to climate change to raise awareness in audiences.

A primordial divinity in Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of Earth and Creation. As the maternal ancestor of divine offspring and monsters alike, she embodies two aspects of Nature and Humankind: harmonious beauty, and the power of destruction and chaos that can be engendered by her forces. Whether called Terra Mater, Pachamama or Gaia, this figure of Mother Earth is present in the stories of the origins of many civilizations.

Gaïa reveals a new perspective on Art and the Environment by exploring the link between women and ecology. If contemporary creation has indeed the question of ecology on the one hand, and the female condition on the on the other, no exhibition has yet brought these two issues together.

Yet the relationship between women and environmental preservation is a close one. the UN's Beijing Platform for Action. Beyond this close link, it is the more general relationship between our human identities and the environment that is at stake. The visit concludes by exploring philosophical avenues of alternative solutions to ecological challenges.

Gaïa is an eco-exhibition. A particular care has therefore been taken to minimize the ecological footprint throughout the life of the event, from the from design to dismantling.

Exhibited artists: Anne-Cécile Surga, Archibald Apori, Aria Evans, Jadran Krnajski, Jave Yoshimoto, Jisook Min, Jodi Patterson, Karine Morel, Keri Rosebraugh, Kristi Beisecker, Laura Sanchez Filomeno, Laurence Hochin, Lisa Goren, Maja Beganović, Mamoune The Artist, Manjiri Kanvinde, Marica Kicušić,  Milica Vesić, Morgan Le Cam, Sanja Solunac, Şirin Doğuş, Sofya Radelet, Yelena Lezhen
 

"  Pachamama is an Indian goddess who explores the close relation between the Earth and  Human being, made of harmony and not of fight. "

Mamoune The Artist

"  I see Nature as a spiritual force, and focus not on the medium of flora per se, but rather on the auric energy of plant life."

Kristi Beisecker

" I dug a hole to watch the smell of the earth. With the smell of the earth, I meditate. "

Jisook Min

"What is logic without emotion?

What is reason without humanity and compassion?

It's just Danger and Destruction. "

Elena Lezhen