„Climate changes us” is the main theme of this year's Przemiany Festival, during which we will analyse different strategies for getting out of the climate crisis. Don't worry, our intention isn't to scare you with an on-coming catastrophe. On the contrary – we will focus on the most effective methods of avoiding it.
Festiwal Przemiany - archiwum
Użyj strzałek do przechodzenia między zakładkami
The inaugural lecture of the XI Przemiany Festival will be delivered by Professor Naomi Oreskes, an American science historian from Harvard's University, who focuses on research regarding climate denialism and the trust in science. Lately, Oreskes' work became an inspiration for Joanna Rajkowska's exhibition Rhizopolis at Zachęta gallery, and last year – The Penumbral Age exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
Doctor Valérie Masson-Delmotte is a French climate scientist from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She will talk about the latest IPCC findings on climate warming and its consequences, and present possible solutions for the crisis. Guillaume Pitron is a French journalist and author of documentaries. His lecture will cover rare raw materials in both environmental and geopolitical contexts.
Climate protests around the world are dominated by negative slogans. Protesters usually communicate which phenomena and which groups of interest should be fought in order to overcome the climate crisis. They demand moving away from fossil fuels, and putting a stop to destruction of the environment. They focus of humans and other animals suffering in the places which are most threatened by climate change. Most protest signs either point fingers and express objections, or call for some remedial measures. But which measures?
Dialogue based meetings between Przemiany audience and experts – meaning “after hours” talks in a casual, friendly atmosphere. We will create a safe space where you can discuss and exchange ideas comfortably, without the typical distance between lecturers and listeners.
Użyj strzałek do przechodzenia między zakładkami
Przemiany exhibition connects science, engineering, art, and design. Next to informative and educative exhibits, you will find also those that are meant to impact you emotionally, or are more closely related to your everyday experiences. At the exhibition, it will be possible to personally meet the creators of some exhibits.
For the Przemiany cinema programme, we always choose documentaries that are directly connected to the subjects explored at the festival. They are supplemental to the threads which sometimes don't make the time during lectures, debates, or meetings with experts.
Virtual Reality (VR) experiences – designed by an increasingly wider circle of visual artists, as well as it is used often for educational purposes – year after year, they show what a wide range of possibilities this new area of art and science can bring. A virtual immersion in new, alien worlds, and exploration of their complexities – it's hard to compare this with anything but the way in which we experience the non-virtual world in our everyday lives, using our senses.
Industry-level CO2 emissions have a negative impact on the climate. The scientific consensus on this have been achieved decades ago. One of the most important actions that need to be taken, in order to solve the climate crisis, is leaving fossil fuels behind, and creating systems of energy that reduce emissions to as low as possible. However, the scientific consensus didn't create a political one. The transition period has been a time of anxiety, uncertainty, and doubt.
Are energy transition and other global operations, which aim to solve the climate crisis, also a cause for cultural transformations? Who are the climate deniers, who would do anything to slow down the fight against global warming? We will be asking questions like these during the festival.
Festival Themes
- trust in science, and in sources of knowledge on climate change
- carbon footprint
- energy transition
- electro-mobility and changes in transportation
- climate justice
- geo-engineering
- rare Earth elements (both in the context of renewable energy sources, and digital technologies)
- climate protests and intergenerational dialogue
Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is an internationally renowned earth scientist, historian, and author of both scholarly and popular books and articles on the history of earth and environmental science, including most recently, Why Trust Science? (2019) and Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean (2021). Her opinion pieces have been published in leading media outlets around the globe, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times (London), and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. In 2015, she wrote the Introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, Laudato Si.
Guillaume Pitron