The eyewash. A particularly persistent, extremely dangerous species, consisting mainly of influential, highly privileged white men. Eyewashers twist facts, present negative things in a positive light and turn everything to their advantage. He stands for those who use their position of power to make a personal profit from the climate catastrophe. He increases his wealth by burning fossil fuels. He exploits natural resources and people. Sustainability, responsible action towards the climate catastrophe or even a common global future stand in the way of his personal pleasure. Ignorance and denial are his constant companions, running in circles. The media and political reappraisal is influenced by the eyewash. Precarious warning signs of nature are downplayed and normalized with platitudes such as “it’s always been hot in summer” or “fear-mongering and scaremongering” and have a negative impact on the community’s sense of responsibility. “Augenwischer – Organized repression of the climate crisis” captures the current social situation worldwide and re-evaluates it. Selected by a jury, twelve international artists show individual approaches to the eyewash and the resulting collective climate repression in humorous, tense and moving works. The artists expose disinformation and anti-climate propaganda, play with conspiracy myths, accuse unscrupulous profiteers of fossil fuels and at the same time offer solutions. Accompanying the exhibition, an extensive program invites exchange and discourse.” (Katja Hock) Outside of the competition, we are showing Léonard Chemineau‘s graphic, which depicts the common narratives of climate change deniers with humor in six languages for download. One agent of doubt, for example, is the Springer press, whose publishing house is largely owned by fossil fuel investors, as well as AFD, so-called “lateral thinkers”. “It’s always been hot in summer”, “It’s a good thing!”, “Yes, it’s the weather”, “Fear-mongering and scaremongering”, “He who believes will be saved”, “Belief in man-made climate change as a substitute for religion?” Cognitive scientists have developed a toolkit called PLURV to help identify disinformation and propaganda related to the climate crisis: Pseudo experts, logic errors, unfulfillableexpectations, cherry-picking, conspiracy mythsare detection features. In Germany, the CDU and FDP parties are conducting a textbook delaying discourse: they have no proposals. It’s really not about political ideologies, it’s about defending fossil business models. Displacement leads to aggression against, for example, meteorologists on TV who receive hate messages. You only believe what you want to believe. Researchers talk about dissonant information being devalued and consonant information being valorized. The fact that humanity is in the process of destroying the foundations of human life with its way of life generates unpleasant emotions: Feelings of guilt, fears, sadness about the squandered future, the inevitable suffering and death. Cognitive dissonance, that is. Pseudo-information that suggests everything is not so bad can be exonerating.
The book accompanying the exhibition:
Men who burn the world. C. Stöcker, 4th ed. 2024, Ullstein Publ.
The works
The work “Spin Doctor” by Tom Albrecht symbolizes the fossil fuel industry, which slows down politics and public opinion as well as renewable energy production.
Stephan Groß deals with a statement by Beatrix von Storch. “In Blame It on the sun, the reactionary forces blame the uninfluenceable celestial body that cannot defend itself against it,” says Groß. From collected and shredded climate change denier Bild and BZ newspapers presses Pia Höhfeld blocks together and stages them as an installation of “stacked up lines”.
Vera Leisibachs The 22-minute video work “In Reverse” deals with the social and individual feeling of powerlessness in the face of climate change. And with “Pegellatte”, a multi-part wall object Christine Lengtat distorted perception visible: “Not recognizing the obvious leads to a deformation in thinking, reflected here in an altered, unhinged construction.”
Vera Menold’s painting “Survival of the sickest” demonstrates the scope of the climate crisis; pollution, destruction, greed and ultimately death, while the five-part multimedia work “Peanuts” by Brigitte Nolden highlights the lack of responsibility and trivialization of global pollution.
Riiko Sakkinen lets in “Climate Change Denial Is Not a River in Egypt” humorous fuses humorous wordplay with consumer objects to highlight the state of psychological denial. Andrea Streit’s Andrea Streit’s video work also uses humor as a form of debate: in “23rd Episode from the puppet film”, she stages a US reality show in which an autocratic egomaniac and incumbent president, a puppet called Donald Sinclair, is accompanied through his everyday life by a camera team.
“The red thread” by Violetta Vollrath consists of 12 printouts of fictitious posters of political statements. Ambiguity and omission of concrete statements are criticized and Vollrath’s false promises and claims are exposed.
Lioba von den Driesch transfers the curve of an infographic of rising temperatures to a Kyrie score. A god is to be summoned through the sounds in order to restore cosmic harmony, which is also the subject of “Now it’s beautiful ” by Misha Waks is echoed. He is trying to reverse the process of melting and create a balance, but coal mining, which is profitable for individuals, stands in contrast to the resulting melting of the glaciers and affects the whole of humanity.
“Augenwischer – Organized Suppression of the Climate Crisis” captures the current social situation worldwide and re-evaluates it. The artists expose disinformation and anti-climate propaganda, play with conspiracy myths, accuse unscrupulous profiteers of fossil fuels and at the same time offer possible solutions.
Text by Katja Hock
Peanuts (detail), Brigitte Nolden, Rosengarten, 2024 Object, image, audio, installation, video: Tom Albrecht, Stephan Groß, Pia Höhfeld, Vera Leisibach, Christine Lengtat, Vera Menold, Brigitte Nolden, Riiko Sakkinen, Kollektiv Thinking of Yves, Violetta Vollrath, Lioba von den Driesch, Misha Waks. Special guest: Léonard Chemineau
