Art against the climate crisis: Kunstmeile Hamburg and Baltic Raw Org set an example for more sustainability

With the “Picnic on the Wall”, Kunstmeile Hamburg and the artists of Baltic Raw Org set an example for more sustainability on the plateau of the Hamburger Kunsthalle on 10 September.

Fig. above: Picnic on the Wall, 10.09.2022, the dancer and performer Damaris Dominguez in the climate-cooling suit by Baltic Raw Org © Kunstmeile Hamburg, Photo: Max Hartmann.

A concert of bird calls, a floating tree stretching its roots into the air, DJ sets and a catwalk for climate-neutralising clothing-what seemed surreal was an artistic action in the name of climate protection and social coexistence in urban space. The artists’ collective Baltic Raw Org (BRO) and Kunstmeile Hamburg invited the public to experience Hamburg’s busy city centre as a creative meeting place for one day.

The visitors tried on the climate-neutralising costumes themselves with interest and enthusiasm. Coats with planted pockets that directly compensate for the CO₂ exhaled, for example, or matt black costumes with basalt applications that refer to the CO₂-binding function of the moors as a cooling surface for the Earth’s atmosphere and absorb solar radiation. While capes made of reflective fabric turn the rays away from the earth and send them back into the atmosphere according to Solar Radiation Management to counteract further heating of the earth.

The “Picnic on the Wall” is the first joint art project of the Kunstmeile Hamburg. With this artistic intervention, Hamburg’s leading museums-Bucerius Kunst Forum, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kunstverein in Hamburg and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg-would like to give impulses to create visions for more sustainability, climate protection and a liveable metropolis of tomorrow.