COP15 Side Events in Tune with Talks

By Isabelle Tolhurst
itolhurst@mail.djh.dk

Music and the arts have historically been a powerful driving force for action and movement of people. Climate change is no exception.

A woman wept as she begged for people to push their politicians to action. A man desperately sought the cure for the apathy of the people.

But at the presentation of his documentary on December 7th, UN environmental photographer and founder of the Hard Rain Project, Mark Edwards potently addressed the gathered crowd.

Edwards maintained that change was not only necessary but possible, regardless of the outcome of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate talks.

“A one-metre sea level rise will leave one million people homeless in Bangladesh and India alone. Where will these people go? Silence… Exactly. It is our generation’s unique challenge. We live in ‘sophisticated modesty’; that doesn’t mean less art or music or friendships or celebrations – just less waste.”

Music’s role in climate change

Bob Marley inspired hope in the face of great injustice in the African continent.

Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ begs us to envision a world where divides are non-existent.

Live Aid raised awareness and resulted in the donation of over 160 million euros to combat Ethiopian famine. And with the recent announcement of Bob Dylan’s song ‘A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall’ (BBC World Online) as the unofficial anthem of the Copenhagen climate conference, it must be considered whether or not music and arts can really play a part in moving people to action.

Dylan’s song was first performed in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, shortly before the Cuban Missile Crisis and the eruption of a major crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union.

COP15’s artistic approach

A multitude of alternative exhibitions and events are running throughout the conference.

They include the ‘Red 7-Metre Line’, where Danish artist Jens Galschiot will bring attention to the risk of global sea level rise by installing a pulsing red line seven metres above sea level around the city and numerous projects on sustainable architecture. And perhaps the most notable, the Hopenhagen Live campaign, presents a city within a city dedicated to taking climate change and sustainable energy is taken seriously in an entertaining way. The campaign insists we are ‘all citizens of Hopenhagen.’

Also marking the first day of the crucial UN convention was the Dance For Climate Change concert, where high profile spokespeople and performers (including Shaggy and Akon) performed in Denmark’s national football stadium. The concert was part of the larger ‘Seal the Deal!’ campaign.

Aesthetics and activities: will they achieve anything politically?

Edwards, explains how he was inspired by Dylan’s song, and how such exhibitions like his can stir action.

“I was fascinated by the lyrics, and I decided to illustrate each line of the song. In the years that followed I added pictures as I saw them.”

Edwards’ attachment with the song began in 1969, when he was rescued by Tuareg nomads after getting lost in the Sahara Desert.

“My rescuer rubbed two sticks together…He made a fire and we had a nice cup of tea. Then he turned his battered old cassette player on, and Bob Dylan sang ‘A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall.”‘ He said in BBC World News online article.

As stated on the project’s website, The Hard Rain Project was established to support educational programmes for schools, universities and colleges, as well as public exhibitions that campaign for ‘realistic solutions to the interlinked problems of climate change, poverty, the wasting of resources, population expansion, habitat destruction and species loss.’

Delivering the message

“Photographs are by definition a shadow of the past, but also, a ghost of the future and Hard Rain paints a picture of what the world could very possibly be…

Climate change brings pictures the Greenland ice sheets, Bangladesh refugees and an Artic fox together in one tight sequence… We are interdependent…And if we carry on with this way of living, it becomes a way of dying,” says Edwards.

In October this year, Edwards won the Royal Photographic Society’s Terence Donovan Award. He dedicated it to Bob Dylan and the Hard Rain team, including the many fellow photographers who contributed to the project.

The Hard Rain exhibition
 will be running from the 6th to 19th December at Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen – presented by the United Nations Environment Programme and Hard Rain Project