Version 3.2

Less is enough. Degrowth in (post)artistic practices

The aim of the session is to reflect on artistic strategies of practicing the principles of degrowth. The panel consists of three paper presentations (15 minutes each) followed by a discussion (45 minutes) in which the panelists will further explore the relationships between artistic practices and degrowth and highlight the links and tensions between their research and ideas.
The first presentation focuses on theory, laying the groundwork for further discussion of particular strategies and practices. The paper argues that any counter-hegemonic creative practice in the age of capitalocene must acknowledge and respond to the planetary climate and ecological crisis, pointing to the principles of degrowth as a guide for these efforts. Exploring paths for degrowth-oriented art, the paper highlights postartistic and use-oriented approaches, a shift from overproduction of content to collaborative production of contexts.
The second presentation looks at historical and contemporary Polish eco-art assemblies as examples of degrowth-oriented artistic practice, exploring the history of the first (1971) Polish eco-art gathering in Opolno-Zdrój, a former spa-town located at the edge of an open-pit coal mine, that focused on sustainability, the limits to growth; followed by the analysis of contemporary postartistic practices, in which the eco-art assembly-model is now used as a tool for learning, practicing and experimenting with degrowth and imagining a good life for everyone within the limits of the planet.
The third presentation proposes a feminist take on degrowth and art through exploration of historical and contemporary ecofeminist art practices. Ecofeminism, which shares roots and many principles with degrowth, has inspired a range of artistic approaches, grounded in ideas such as moderation, care, abandoning overproduction and overconsumption as well as attention to the more-than-human world. The paper focuses on contemporary postartictic ecofeminist practices that experiment with applying ideas and values of degrowth and using art as a tool for advocacy, activism and civil disobedience.