ART 2030

For one of Art 2030’s first major projects, Chinese multimedia artist Ai Weiwei (1957-) created Soleil Levant (2017), an installation piece that dramatizes the ongoing migration crisis through the use of found materials. Inspired by a Claude Monet painting of the same name, Ai Weiwei salvaged 3,500 life vests that had washed ashore on the Greek island of Lesbos and piled them into the windows of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg gallery in Copenhagen. A haunting representation of the dangers confronted by refugees attempting the sea passage to Europe, Soleil Levant explored broad questions of economic inequality, social justice and environmental degradation.

Another early work, YES (2017) by Yoko Ono (1933-), asked participants to write the word “yes” (in their native language) onto a large blank canvas as a way of affirming their commitment to pursuing the SDGs. The installation ran at United Nations City Copenhagen in February 2018, collecting more than 500 pledges over the course of four days.

In September 2018 the organization staged its first major international event, Art 2030 New York, a series of public exhibitions and panel discussions that coincided with the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly. One of the highlights of the week was a performance piece by Danish artist Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (1970-) titled Tow with the Flow (2018), a critique of the global textile trade featuring student volunteers from the New Design High School.

Several Art 2030 initiatives highlight the power of art to tackle social and political issues in ways that are at once confrontational and uplifting. Notable projects include Art for Hope, an event to inspire action on climate change and mass consumption, which opened at the 2022 Venice Biennale; and Art for Action, an ambitious campaign with participation from Ai Weiwei, Tabita Rezaire (1989-), Julian Charrière (1987-) and others.

Through its mission, Art 2030 brings artists and their audiences together in the fight for social justice. “The world is at a place where we all have to engage, and the Sustainable Development Goals is the best plan I can find,” the organization’s founder, Danish curator and activist Luise Faurschou, told ARTnews in 2018. “I really believe it’s a plan for people, the planet, and prosperity, and there is a way of reaching it – but we all need to engage.”

Contributor: Stephen Meyer