A graphic work by Oliver Ressler
20 ink drawings, 42 x 29,7cm, 2024
Drawings by Claudia Schioppa
Rising temperatures across the globe and a huge loss of biodiversity have brought our planet to the brink of collapse. The drawing series Contours of the Coming World outlines actions necessary to win a future worth living. Some of these, such as the unsealing of concrete, respond to the need to repair ecological damage. We see trees planted where previously streets sealed the soil. Another drawing shows the Pentagon, with part of the military headquarters demolished and trees growing in its place. This reflects the reality that the fight for social and climate justice will only be won when the machinery that generates war, inequality, unfair trade relations and ecological destruction is replaced by forms of democratic governance that put the survival of human and more-than-human lives at the center of all decisions.
Several drawings show acts of civil disobedience: barricaded highways, forests occupied to protect them, defensive architecture built to delay police operations.
Some drawings single out unnecessary luxury emissions: a private jet is prevented from taking off; a strike shuts down a sports car manufacturer. Others focus on disruption of new climate-destructive infrastructures such as pipelines and false “solutions” such as LNG, which according to new studies has a worse climate impact than lignite, the most polluting of all conventional fossil fuels.
Contours of the Coming World playfully draws the outlines (contours) of the collective action needed. If these outlines remind us of children’s coloring books, that is because the coming generations will suffer most from present-day governments’ inaction. Considered separately, none of these interventions will avert climate breakdown. Only the combined power of thousands of collective actions can decarbonize our whole-world economy and achieve climate justice.
Contours of the Coming World is a prize-winning project within “Imagine Climate Dignity: Artistic Collaborations”, an initiative of the Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria.
