Sustainable

We all try to do something for the environment, for example by eating organic, recycling, separating waste and flying less. It's good to all be able to contribute to a cleaner world. Of course, the biggest contribution to environmental problems should and can come from big companies and other big spenders and frequent flyers like politicians, pop stars and royals.

But let's start with ourselves.

After all, the environment is something that also concerns many visual artists. Either thematically in their work and exhibitions, or practically in their daily artistic practice, which involves the use of materials and behaviour: reusing materials, not using certain types of paint, travelling less. The latter is not always easy. For many artists, artist-in-residencies are important moments in their careers. It brings new perspective, new insights, new ways of working and a new network. It gives a different view of the world that can sometimes last for years.

Of course, the biggest contribution to environmental problems should and can come from big business and other big spenders and big spenders such as politicians, pop stars and royals

A few months ago we received an e-mail from one of our readers expressing her concern about environmental issues and more specifically about the impact of air travel. Her feeling was that there is little attention for this in the art world and in connection with this she mentioned the great importance attached to residencies abroad. Her suggestion to us was to pay more attention in the section Foreign Countries to possibilities closer to home, and in this way to speak out for a more environmentally friendly approach.

A good point! On the one hand, we'd like to bring all the opportunities for visual artists - well, as many as possible - to the attention of our readers, and on the other hand, of course, we'd like to contribute to and speak out for a cleaner world as much as possible.

Via a footprint individuals can get an indication of their polluting contribution to the world. A footprint or footprint assumes that every inhabitant of the planet has an average of 1.8 hectares at his or her disposal to live well. The average footprint of the Dutch is 6.3 hectares. If all people lived like the average Dutch person, we would need more than three times the amount of space available on our planet in order to survive. See also www.voetafdruk.eu.

If all people would live like the average Dutch person we would need more than three times the amount of space available on our planet in order to survive.

It could just be that visual artists themselves have a relatively low footprint (if so, that is a plea for more visual artists on earth). Leaving aside much-flying artists and the massive visits to international visual arts events such as various biennials. As we all understand, the footprint drops significantly with fewer air miles.

The Belgian Arts Centre recently drew up a map of train routes for cities in Europe that can be reached by train from Brussels within 6.5 hours. This is a great tool for working and travelling in a sustainable way. We want to support this initiative by looking for more artist-in-residencies within the range of this map. This does not mean that we will no longer include opportunities that are further away - there are sometimes very special places that we do not want to deprive our readers - but we will look more consciously for opportunities closer to home.

With thanks to the letter writer and Kunstenpunt.

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