SUSTAINABLE ART
FACING THE NEED FOR REGENERATION,
RESPONSIBILITY AND RELATIONS

Edited by Anna Markowska

The words sustainability and sustainable development used in political, economic and ecological debates actually reflect historical necessities to consider our planet in terms of global responsibility and not – which has been the case so far – unlimited exploration. Thus, the notion of sustainable art is characterized by social activism.
When analyzing what is covered by the blanket term sustainable art, one must first of all note that rather than including aesthetic guidelines, it will span across various concepts (such as ecological concern, recycling, energy exchange, affective approach to history or political reforms after periods of colonist oppression). Various ideas in turn create new artistic practices.
It is easy to notice that sustainable art is a reaction to the symbolic violence of modernism, its peremptory dividing lines and the cult of an individual, genius, that which is better and more functional. The hierarchy of values based on modernist ethos legitimized violence, actually usurping the moral right to eliminate ruthlessly that which was defined as worse, anachronistic, impractical or simply unreasonable.
Sustainable art reminds us about care, responsibility, harmony; it speaks up for an individual full of empathy for all forms of life, for what is different and incomprehensible. Today, by deposing the genius, the art world chooses community and collective action. So, is sustainable art only wishful thinking, an idealistic project, a pretentious initiative or possibly a dire necessity?