Art Exhibition at the COP26 to open up a cultural conversation on climate

I am very proud to announce that ReGenesis, the organization I founded 2 years ago, and United Nations Climate Champions Race to Zero and Race to Resilience are presenting "Echoes of the Future", an art exhibition to raise awareness, inspire conversations and activate climate action at the COP26 in Glasgow.

In ReGenesis, we believe Art has a critical role to play in helping to communicate the stories of climate change – and in so doing, accelerate the race to a net zero carbon emission, nature positive and resilient world. With this in mind, ReGenesis and the U.N. Climate Champions convened a group of artists, representing a range of disciplines, to open up a cultural conversation on climate and help make it accessible to everyone. This exhibition is a first step towards ReGenesis' aim to work on the inclusion of more cultural items in the Sustainable Development Goals of the U.N.

Interview in French at i24News - 31-10-21

Interview in French at KAN Radio - 01-11-21

Artist Platnic at Resilient40 Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - January 2020

Film screening of ‘Genesis’

Genesis the film is about biodiversity loss and human consumption. An open discussion followed about perception of people on the short film and how art and culture can play a role in conveying powerful messages.

Face painting

We created a cultural-plurality-unification activity wherein participants painted their faces with their preferred media and create unique design/ color canvases. Participants were encouraged to bring face-painting media ranging from the modern world such as cream/ cosmetic products, extending to traditional world media like sand/ mud/ alternative natural pigments, from our native lands – mainly local, everyday materials, which reflected the diversity in the identities and experience of people.

The idea is about dealing with modern and traditional worlds on the one hand and ‘erasing’ the original color of the skin on the other hand. In the end, participants were not differentiated by the color of the skin but from the final artwork made on their faces. The exercise empowered the defining of oneself in hers/ his own terms and breaking down programmed barriers of racial and social differences.

Talks with artist Michel Platnic and ReGenesis mobilizers

Critical discourse on race and racial construct. Participants also engaged on an interactive session to elaborate on why they chose specific colors and designs for face painting, and how it felt to carve out something unique for themselves.

About R40

The meeting of the #Resilient40 convened changemakers to influence African and international negotiations responding to climatic change in Africa, including contributing to the UK preparations for COP 26. Discussions allowed the group to formulate key next steps and a framework for continuing and strengthening the network’s impact, as well as providing space for the emerging young leaders to share expertise and ideas from across the continent and with those from the UK.  It built on the regional and cross-continent relationships and strengthened new connections.

Project ReGenesis is a new platform founded by artist Michel Platnic to aggregate international support for local actions on sustainable development.

CALL FOR PARTNERSHIP

We are creating this platform for art activism in order for individuals who act in sustainable development fields such as social equality and justice, agriculture or biodiverse species protection to be able to communicate and create synergies in organizing global social interventions for stronger long-term impact through aggregating international resources.

We believe that:

-        each country is facing its own issues, with differing priorities from its neighbors or global agendas. We call for leadership by example from respective member countries and states to lend a voice in representing issues on the ground to highlight the most important and urgent ones to a global resource network;

-        citizens are the ones who can impose a change in lifestyle and consumption habits and whose political vote can lead the way for governments to create necessary change; 

-        synergies between people can be an efficient way to create change. Developing a tool that could be shared by different individuals and organizations for common actions could be of tremendous help in delivering positive impact. 

In the process of choosing our partners, we conduct careful due diligence in selecting people and funds in order to uphold full transparency and freedom of action. We are currently building a core team and establishing a like-minded, like-hearted community of changemakers who will lead at local and international levels and share their experiences to generate positive impact and develop solutions for real, important and urgent societal needs.

Visit us at www.re-genesis.org

Call for Leaders & Ambassadors of All United Nations Members States to Convene and Lend a Voice in Preparation of Local Issues for Global Action

In collaboration with FutureHere, an incubator and initiative for artists, I am creating a platform for activism/ artivism in order for the different activist organizations from all united nations member states, who act in the fields of increasing awareness on issues such as optimal sustainability, social equality and justice, animal farming, animal species protection to be able to communicate and create synergies in organizing global events and creating a stronger long-term impact through consolidating international resources.

We believe each country is facing its own issues perhaps with differing priorities from its neighbors or global agendas, and call for leadership by example from respective member countries and states to lend a voice in representing issues on the ground in order to highlight the most important and urgent ones to a global resource network.

We understand that rapid change will happen neither from the industry nor from the policy makers as there are may be conflicted interests and powers in place who are inclined to slow down change to maintain economic stability. We believe instead that citizens are the ones who can impose a change in lifestyle, consumption habits whose political vote can force industry and governments to create the necessary change.

We believe that synergies between people and organizations can be an efficient way to create a change. Creating a tool that could be shared by different activist organizations for common actions could be of tremendous help in creating positive impact. 

We are in the ideation and design phase of creating the platform. While in the process of choosing our partners, we conduct careful due diligence in selecting people and funds in order to uphold full transparency and freedom of action. We are currently building a core team with a diverse range of skillsets to oversee various management line functions in Operations, Design, IT, Finance, Project Management and Social Media & Communications; and establishing a like-minded, like-hearted community of changemakers who will lead at local and international levels, and share their experiences in order to develop solutions and affect positive impact for real, important and urgent societal needs.

If this project sounds relevant to you or if you have specific questions, we would be happy to address your interest or inquiries either during a call or via email (press ‘Contact‘).

Artist Michel Platnic Calls for Multilateral Partnership to Create Art: Virtual Interactive Platform for Sustainable Development Goals - Owned and Shared by United Nations and People

Press Release, 30 August 2019 – Ahead of upcoming key global meetings such as the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September in New York and the One Young World Summit in October in London, Artist Michel Platnic calls for stakeholders across government, non-governmental, private, public, and nonprofit sectors around the world to act on shared sustainable development goals and to partner – in institutional or individual; professional or private capacities – as a one united world and civil society to co-construct and co-invest in a virtual interactive platform to connect actors with common goals rooted in human and biodiversity rights.

Recognizing the power of art in creating impact among civil society and the potential of artivism (art activism) to influence the political sphere, Michel Platnic raised an important question “In order to sustain human existence on Earth, how can Art challenge us to redefine mankind’s perception about nature? The UN urge people to realize that we only have one earth and that humans and the environment are one and inseparable. Who better than the citizens are able to create a fast change by modifying their consumption habits and influence local politics by voting? Modern cultures have been for long highly influenced by the need for economical growth and competition, it is time to invest in building a society which prioritizes shared success and to live in harmony and peace with the planet. Should investing in Art and Culture related action to create a new cultural realm for social change not be part of the UN targets for sustainable change in tandem with promoting sustainable Finance, Technology and Trade?”

“Over time, with the aim to survive, humans have developed new tools and technologies. These achievements have led mankind to better control their environment. Our ambition and greed has led to overconsumption and the uncontrolled use of our planet’s resources which led to the extinction of enormous numbers of living species,” Platnic added on the fact that we are living in the Holocene or the sixth mass extinction and that most citizens of the planet should take concern and accountability to address the related issues.

The virtual platform will focus on supporting and create synergy for collective concrete actions, main focus will be:

• Reprogramming the misconception of the duality human/ nature and that nature should serve human needs into partnership/ coexistence between human and all living and nonliving organisms. Replace the hierarchical pyramid model back to a complex biosphere based model;

• Encouraging actions to create a responsible democracy where citizens take an active part in politics;

• Educating society through Art with the importance of nature legal and administrative rights for all forms of living creatures and natural resources as a crucial necessity for human existence;

• Harnessing people, research and technology to preserve ecosystems including biotic and abiotic resources;

• Advertising open calls to create synergies between different actors;

• Creating a database of current and past Art actions for sustainable development.

The platform shall also jointly with FutureHere, develop indices to share governments’ and corporations’ spending and contributions to artistic and cultural initiatives and actions for sustainability.

The global climate crisis is a tremendous chance for us to understand more about ourselves in relation to the world and realize that a lot of our priorities today in both private and professional spheres are no longer viable.

Michel Platnic stressed, “It is time for us to take responsibility of our actions. We wish to create a platform where industrialists, investors, scientific researchers thinkers and artists will join forces and efforts together in order to create a future where human beings will feel part and live in harmony with their environment while preserving natural resources.”

For more information, please contact:

contact@re-genesis.org