The climate change narrative is a never-ending story.
Since the 1970s, we have witnessed the efforts of scientists and NGOs to warn about global warming. We have seen the European engage in climate change warning with programs such as the Green Deal, and more recently the New European Bauhaus (NEB). The UN (17 sustainable development goals) and the IPCC (Assessment Reports) are likewise alerting us.
We also see the public authorities in our respective countries (Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, France) telling us, with varying degrees of conviction, that the challenge of decarbonisation must be taken into account.
Why are our structures still so far away from a transition approach?
There are probably several explanatory factors: the impression that this is primarily an issue for states and large global companies, the fear of having to reduce our action, denial (cognitive optimism bias) or procrastination.
Yet we are receiving many signals that are easy to interpret. At European and sometimes national level, there have never been so many conferences encouraging organisations to take action, and some are doing so. But the sense of urgency is diluted in the face of the crises we are experiencing elsewhere.
LeCAKE proposes to join this dynamic and to seize the opportunity offered by the EU and other bodies. But rather than carrying out actions in dispersed order, at the risk that the slightest difficulty will give us an argument to postpone our effort, we are going to try a new and collective experiment.
LeCAKE will give us the space to write together the beginning of a desirable transition story. It will offer us a common base of knowledge adapted to our profession, an experience of workshops and ideation that will allow us to look towards new, greener and decarbonised practices.
The process will initially involve 8 direct partners and 20 associated partners.
6 of the 8 partners share an artistic background in performing arts, and have developed a multidisciplinary approach and an artistic education action towards young people.
They have also carried out several European projects together in the past years, in the framework of different consortiums. They therefore have solid European experience, but also mobility practices that go against the recommendations for decarbonisation.
They are aware of the need to change their project management system and wish to transform this potentially constraining exercise into an attractive group project.
Finally, these 6 partners have the advantage of a diversity of local contexts: Ohi Pezoume, Pro Progressione and Transplanisphere are based in the capitals of Athens, Budapest and Paris, and work extensively on the outskirts of these cities. Consol Theater and Ex Quorum operate in the medium-sized cities of Gelsenkirchen and Evora. Teatro Rigodon is based in a rural village in Lazio, Rocca Sinibalda, and works with the local community of municipalities.
The sas, a science-art-society third place based at the University of Paris Sud Saclay, is new to European cooperation, but the scientists who collaborate on its work have experience of cooperation through their respective laboratories. Its added value in the consortium lies in the fact that it brings an art-science opening and an experience of projects already turned towards ecology.
The Shift project brings a core competence with its “decarbonisation of culture plan” for France. The consortium will link it to the variety of European contexts of the 5 other participating countries.