Learning From The Earth

Who we are and what we do: ILEA

For over six years, cultural and educational projects have been taking place at the interface of art and ecology in the Safiental valley in the canton of Grisons. Behind this is a group of people from the fields of art, agriculture, education, research and regional development. Together they form the ILEA (Institute for Land and Environmental Art), a competence and research center for environmental art in the peripheral Alpine region that is currently being established. In the longer term the ILEA is to be expanded into a university institute and a creative hub as part of a regional and international network.

Since 2016, in addition to the outdoor biennial ART SAFIENTAL and the international summer school ALPS ART ACADEMY, ILEA’s third focus has included research: multi-year transdisciplinary projects, an international symposium (ILEA Talks), a residency program and two publication series in the field of art and ecology. Since 2020, the ILEA has been based at the Berghotel Alpenblick in Tenna.

Further information: www.ilea.art

What it's all about: Learning from the Earth

ART SAFIENTAL, the summer school ALPS ART ACADEMY as well as the symposium ILEA Talks took place last summer under the title «Learning from the Earth». In the aftermath, a reader is to be produced that will carry the discourse beyond the local and temporary event by means of selected texts and art projects.

The publication «Learning from the Earth» gathers texts and art projects in a time of planetary crisis. From economic crisis, pandemic, war to climate crisis, it is obvious that humanity and life on planet Earth is at risk.

The works and approaches debated in the Safiental are comments and proposals that critically engage with the present and propose alternatives to current developments and upheavals. They reflect on what our relationship with the Earth is and what we can learn from it.
»Learning from the Earth» not only calls for a response to the climate emergency, but the contributions also highlight alternative, sometimes forgotten or unlearned, ways in which we can engage in dialogue with the Earth. Contributions address topics such as sustainability, biodiversity and nature in general as well as aspects of human-animal-plant hierarchy, holism and cosmology. Common to all is the question of how we can create a more ecological and just future.

TEXTS


Annemarie Bucher (CH), Damian Christinger (CH), T.J. Demos (US), Friday for Future, Donna Haraway (US), Johannes M. Hedinger (CH), Naomi Klein (CA), Klimastreik (CH), Bruno Latour (FR), James Lovelock (UK), Timothy Morton (US), Dharmendra Prasad (IN), Michel Serres (FR), Vandana Shiva (IN), Greta Thumberg (SE) u.a.

ART PROJECTS


Lara Almarcegui (ES, NL), Badel/Sarbach (CH), Ursula Biemann (CH), Julius von Bismarck (DE), Buchli/Isenschmid (CH), Com&Com (CH), Saskia Edens (CH), Lithic Alliance (CH/BE), Marcus Maeder (CH), !Mediengruppe Bitnik (CH/DE), Dharmendra Prasad (IN), Simon/Odermatt (CH), Sound Kite Ensemble (CH), Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger (CH), Ben Vautier (FR/CH).

120 p., German/English, Vexer Verlag St.Gallen/Berlin

For this we need you: Sharing knowledge and art

We share many of ILEA’s initiatives freely and without charge. For example, the Biennial or ILEA Talks are free to attend. Likewise, all of our texts, audio and video recordings, and research data are freely accessible online. We would like to be able to continue doing this in the future but of course there are costs: Not only do we want to remunerate our staff, researchers, artists and authors appropriately but production costs are often difficult to cover, be it for the art projects, research, education, outreach or these very publications.

Currently we are planning two publications:

1. LEARNING FROM THE EARTH, to be published in early 2023, 120 pages D/E, 15 essays, interviews and short texts, 15 art projects, total costs: 22’000 CHF.


2. LANDSCAPE 2, to be published in 2024 approx. 300 pages D/E, glossary with 150 terms, 15 essays, 40 art projects, total costs 48’000 CHF

With the current crowdfunding campaign we would like to first finance the publication «Learning from the Earth». Should the campaign be successful - which we certainly hope! - any surplus would flow directly into the second publication (Landscape 2, 2024).

Detailed costs publication «Learning from the Earth» (in CHF):

• Editorial work, coordination: 4000
• Essays (authors, fees): 3000
• Translations (partly): 1000
• Editing, proofreading: 1000
• Graphics, layout, typesetting: 4500
• Photos, image editing: 1500
• Printing, binding (800 copies): 5000
• Publishing, distribution (share): 2000 ./. own contribution: -2000

= TOTAL 20’000 CHF