The New York Times: Once again, summer brought with it a barrage of unnatural natural catastrophes: floods, forest fires, droughts, deadly heat waves and mass die-offs of fish and fowl. Much of what climate scientists foretold is coming true. It was against this background that the Kunstfest Weimar, a late summer event that is the largest contemporary arts festival in eastern Germany, took place with an emphasis on climate justice and our collective responsibility to strive for a better world.
4 comments:
The word “solastalgia” is fascinating to me. Especially for college students, this is a time of rapid developments and it’s nice to know that the condition of missing something you still have – or feeling trepidatious in the face of upcoming change – is normal and even common. Something about that word just really struck a chord with me. That also definitely connects to the state of the world, in terms of the environmental collapse and political unrest. Theatre is transformative, and that’s a very real and powerful emotion to tap into; the fear of what is to come and sorrow of missing what’s gone, but also hope for the future and what we can strive to accomplish. I would love to know more about this play, “Solastalgia,” or see it myself if I could. That kind of work that raises questions and strives to connect to the emotions of its audience in unconventional ways is, to me, the most compelling form of art. After all, when times are difficult, it’s so interesting to see how theatre and art respond – whether it’s to provide escapism, inspire hope, or just feel those feelings deeply.
It really makes me glad to see that a real problem like climate change is being portrayed in the theater world. Of course, I think that climate change is growing more and more prominent, and we need to take action now, and in the theater industry, what better way to take action than to show its effects, both on the world itself as well as us as humans. The description of "solastalgia" resonated with me. I've seen changes in the environment at my hometown (albeit not as drastic as "floods, forest fires, droughts" mentioned in the article), and the change does make me feel a sort of longing for the environment that used to be - and I don't think I'm the only one. As for the performances themselves within Kunstfest Weimar: I have no doubt they're incredibly powerful, and I can only hope that they're able to cause an impact for the better of the environment.
This article was an interesting read: I am involved in climate justice work, and so I appreciate the topic, but a lot of the execution of the writing felt somewhat pretentious to me. The information felt a bit inaccessible because of the language the author used. Of what I could get out of it, I did appreciate the underlying message of many of the shows described of the need for hope and imagination to solve these massive issues. While many of them did seem somewhat bleak and pessimistic, there was some speck of hope that was in there. I believe that’s the most important part of organizing and activism around massive social or environmental issues: acknowledging that the fight will be difficult and the problems are getting worse, while knowing that we can’t fight for a better world if we don’t believe that there can be a better world.
I had never heard of the word Solastalgia before, but it's such an interesting word. This is a piece of art I think that taps into theater speaking as a commentary on current events and historical issues, connecting to us and allowing us to feel parts of those issues that we have (in some cases) become numb to. I’m from a part of the US where there are frequent forest fires which never fail to cause some kind of deep harm and I recently read a play called “The Living Ones” by Madeleine Adriance, a main feature of which is forest fires and climate change. Reading (and hearing it) it was kind of a cathartic experience for me. The play dug into those same feelings of helplessness and hope that this article describes - the despair of living in what seems to be a world on the path to destruction and the hope of what could come tomorrow.
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