The challenges we face from climate change and its subsequent crises are complex and interwoven. Heat, droughts, forest fires, floods, rising sea levels, and loss of biodiversity are just some of the natural consequences of climate change that exacerbate health risks, trigger refugee movements, and threaten entire economies, among others. The countries of the Vulnerable 20 (V20) are particularly affected by climate crises and their consequences, as their very existence is threatened, for example, by rising sea levels or an increase in extreme weather events.
The Climate Action Artist Residencies provide a novel approach to address these complexities. By transcending borders and translating scientific research results into artistic media, participating artists generate new strands of discourse and perspectives that can transform our debates and perceptions, ultimately leading to new climate action by society at large.
The Climate Action Artist Residencies are developed and implemented by Cultural Vistas and generously funded by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.
In the years 2024/2025, the Climate Action Artist Residencies invite a total of eight artists from all artistic fields to complete three-month long residencies with an environmental research organization. Two artists from Germany and six from the V20 countries in the Asia/Pacific region Fiji, Philippines, and Samoa will be selected.
Artists from the V20 countries will complete their residency with an environmental research organization in Germany, artists from Germany will complete their residencies with an environmental research organization in the selected V20 countries. Each artist will work with their host institution to highlight aspects of the climate crisis that affect their host country and the V20.
The results of this work will then be communicated in an artistic project of the artist’s choice, aimed to reach, and inform a target audience in their home country and their host country. The focus of the program is the artistic exploration of the globally intertwined and scientifically proven vulnerabilities triggered by the climate crisis in the V20 countries and in Germany.
Artists freely choose their artistic medium. The pairing with appropriate research organizations in the host country will be coordinated by Cultural Vistas, though applicants may indicate preferences if they have a prior connection to appropriate organizations in the host country.
Artists representing all fields of art are invited to apply.
Maximum monthly stipend for a duration of three months. Additional funding for travel (up to 4,000 EUR) and production (up to 10,000 EUR) is available.
Duration of residency at a research organization overseas, followed by implementation of artistic outreach.
In 2024/2025 artists living in and representing the Philippines, Fiji, Samoa, and Germany are eligible to apply for the program.
Bewerbungszeitraum: 1. Dezember 2023 bis 31. Januar 2024
Aufenthaltszeitraum: zwischen 1. März 2024 und 30. November 2024
Bekanntgabe der Auswahl: Ende Februar 2024
Bewerbungszeitraum: 1. April 2024 bis 30. Juni 2024
Aufenthaltszeitraum: zwischen 1. August 2024 und 28. Februar 2025
Bekanntgabe der Auswahl: Ende Juli 2024
Application phases
First application phase
© Daniella Otte
© Lucy Rico
Grace Nono, Ph.D.
Underscoring nature’s agency, Philippine Singer, Ethnomusicologist, Tao Foundation Director Grace Nono, Ph.D., will co-create a sound and music piece with friends and other living beings in her backyard and in a climate organization’s premises.
© Benedicte Gyldenstierne Sehested
Lisa Rave
Guided by seven historical artifacts linking German colonialism in Samoa to her own family history in the region, the visual artist Lisa Rave explores the interconnection of extractivism, cultural loss and the climate crisis in Samoa.
© Elle Divine
Razcel Jan Salvarita
Razcel Jan Salvarita, “Performance Artivist” from the Philippines, will foster curiosity through a Climate Memory Artbox, encouraging community engagement and action on climate change in an immersive shared space.
"In order to curb the climate crisis and keep the 1.5-degree target within reach, we need society as a whole, and everyone in our society must join forces and work together. The Climate Action Artist Residencies, with their focus on The Vulnerable 20, make an important contribution to an increased understanding of the dangers of the climate crisis. They create new networks at the intersection of art, science, and society and amplify for us the voices from the regions most affected by climate change. This can be a new impetus for us: to see how strongly we are all connected and how endangered we all are, through the lens of artistic expression."
Adi Meretui Ratunabuabua-Divialagi is the Chairperson of Blue Shield Pasifika advocating for the implementation of the Hague Convention in the Pacific, focusing on disaster risk reduction and management for cultural heritage properties and sites. During her career Adi has worked with many governments and led various CSO boards. She has initiated projects at regional, national, and international levels representing Fiji’s efforts in the fields of culture, conservation, and education. Adi was a Senior Lecturer teaching graphic reproduction and design at the Fiji Institute of Technology’s School of Arts Culture and Design in Suva, which she had initiated. She continues to work with youth development and mentorship programs to strengthen the cultural sector in Fiji and the Pacific.
Bettina Korintenberg, Dr. is a curator, researcher, and the head of ifa Galleries at the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations. The ifa - institute works with partners worldwide to promote freedom in the arts, research, and civil society. Korintenbergs' curatorial and academic practice focuses on critically questioning and reflecting on paradigms of modernity against the backdrop of current social and ecological transformations. Korintenberg was a Curator at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and the Vitra Design Museum. She wrote her dissertation on the subject of “the museum as heterotopia in a postcolonial perspective”. Recent curatorial projects are “Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics” (2020), “Digital Imaginaries. Africas in Production” (2019), “Thresholds. How to tie time together” (2021/22), “Resonaciones. An Embrace to Awake” (2023/2024) and “Camila Sposati. Breath Pieces” (2023/2024).
Bricx Martillo Dumas/ShrimpPaste is a visual artist and storyteller from the Philippines. He is known for his vibrant and emotional artworks that often deal with themes on climate change, biodiversity, culture, and youth education. He has won numerous awards, including the first prize in the DigitalArt4Climate competition at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021. Dumas has worked closely with various environmental organizations including the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) under the Young ASEAN Storyteller program. Currently, he is developing stories on environment and climate awareness with ClimateTracker.Asia.
Renan Laru-an is the artistic director of SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin. He is a researcher and curator creating exhibitionary, public, and research programs that study ‘insufficient’ and ‘subtracted’ images or subjects at the juncture of development and integration projects. Laru-an is a founding member of the Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN) and has been (co-)curator of the 2nd Biennale Matter of Art, Prague (2022); the 6th Singapore Biennale, Singapore (2019); the 8th OK.Video—Indonesia Media Arts Festival, Jakarta (2017); and other exhibitions.
Maciusela Raitaukala is a curator and cultural and arts manager at the Fiji Arts Council (FAC). The FAC is a non-profit organization that acts as a coordinating body for the preservation, development and promotion of the arts. The FAC strives to establish a vibrant arts scene in Fiji. Raitaukala works at the interface between artistic practice, cultural policy, and civil society in the global South.
Nada Rosa Schroer is a research associate at the Institute for Art and Material Culture at the Technical University of Dortmund and a curator based in Cologne. Schroer is focusing on curatorial and artistic practices that address the ecological, social, and psychological consequences of the colonial capitalocene. She is co-founder of Fluid Circulations – an initiative that conducts research on water bodies in (post-) industrial landscapes. Her recent publications "Towards Permacultural Institutions: Exercises in Collective Thinking” and "Curatorial Learning Spaces. Art, Education and Curatorial Practice" were published in 2023. Further texts have appeared in Monopol Magazin, Missy Magazin and Philosophie Magazin, among others.
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