Symbolic of the commitment and fight against the predators of the burning earth is the campaign, ‘Redistribute Extinction’, created for Earth Day Med by international artist Jonas Staal. Is there a way to turn the narrative of humanity’s extinction against those systems that cause it in the first place? If anything is to become extinct, shouldn’t it be the fossil industries and the neo-colonial extractive mentality that have brought us to the edge of survival today?
These are the questions that artist Jonas Staal has tried to answer by interpreting a series of painted posters, which will be displayed on billboards and buses in the city of Palermo, with the aim of raising awareness of how the climate catastrophe and its enormous impact of armed conflicts and scarcity of resources have a disproportionate impact on the global South, on indigenous peoples and people of colour, on women, minorities and the poor. The images, in particular, aim to raise awareness of the scourge of fires and floods in Sicily.
Climate catastrophe and its massive impact on armed conflict and resource scarcity disproportionately affect the global South, indigenous peoples and people of colour, women, LGBTQIA+ communities and the poor. What would it mean in terms of policy and governance to redistribute extinction and ensure that the fossil elites responsible for climate catastrophe pay the highest price?
It is essential to turn the narrative of extinction against those systems that cause it in the first place. For if anything is to become extinct, it should be the fossil industries and the neo-colonial extractive mentality that have brought so many to the edge of survival today.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jonas Staal is a visual artist whose work deals with the relationship between art, democracy and propaganda. He is the founder of the artistic and political organisation New World Summit (2012-ongoing). Together with Florian Malzacher, he co-directs the training camp Training for the Future (2018-ongoing) and with human rights lawyer Jan Fermon has initiated the collective action Collective Facebook (2020-ongoing). With writer and lawyer Radha D’Souza he founded the Intergenerational Climate Crimes Tribunal (2021-ongoing) and with Laure Prouvost he is co-administrator of Obscure Union.
Exhibition projects include Museum as Parliament (with the Rojava Democratic Self Administration, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2018-ongoing), We Demand a Million More Years (Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, 2022) and Extinction Wars (with Radha D’Souza, Gwangju Museum of Art, 2023). His projects have been widely exhibited at venues such as the V&A in London, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the M_HKA in Antwerp, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Centre Pompidou-Metz and the Nam June Paik Art Center in Seoul, as well as at the 7th Berlin Biennale, the 31st São Paulo Biennale and the 12th Taipei Biennale.