The ecological transition is essential for everyone. Cultural actors question themselves and organize themselves. Facing them are the challenges linked to the acceleration of climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

The scheduling of a Jérôme Bel show in the Louvre at the beginning of October will certainly not have escaped the notice of fans of the French choreographer. But beyond the appeal of his minimalist dance, we could also rejoice in the environmental scope of the event as Jérome Bel is a representative of this movement of artists active in the ecological transition. At the time of confinement, the enfant terrible of contemporary dance had in fact declared an end to plane travel for himself and his performers, while continuing to produce shows around the world, for example by following the rehearsals by videoconference when the train is not possible. Including: the director of her company recently declared that the carbon footprint of the troupe had gone from 54 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year to one tonne, for an identical number of performance dates abroad! Good performance.

This ecological awareness, the activist choreographer shares it with the art historian Estelle Zhong Mengual with whom he wrote “Non-human Dances” presented this October in the galleries of the first museum in the world, a danced stroll embodying a non-anthropocentric vision of bodies... A commitment all the more notable given that the Louvre's carbon footprint, with four million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, 99% of which attributed to the transport of its foreign visitors, literally explodes the meters! Between tourist influxes, large contemporary displays, heavy energy bills, it is of course the entire museum sector, and even all of our cultural activities, which finds itself singled out for the questions of the transition to be carried out. While at the same time an opposite movement is taking shape in contemporary art! A trend driven this time by artists demonstrating a growing sensitivity towards the living, both in the works and in the themes addressed during these same exhibitions.

At the forefront of the causes of pollution? Visitor movements. In its report dedicated to the decarbonization of the cultural sectors, published in 2021, the think tank The Shift Project recalled that half of the 87 million international tourists visiting our heritage contribute massively to the carbon footprint of major museums. The production of exhibitions with numerous works from distant destinations increases the bill, underlines the report denouncing an “arms race” and even an “eventization” of culture. “Any creation of work or scenography requires energy for its inputs (materials), for its transformation processes, for its diffusion (in particular because of the volumes and masses moved during possible roaming), as well as at the end of its life (waste and other “negative externalities”).

Faced with this observation: the need to change practices! And, in the visual arts, The Shift Project to list: renounce exceptional exhibition formats to consider a different exhibition aesthetic, exclude the most polluting materials such as carpet and polyane, renounce the sometimes inconsiderate use (sic) to ultra-secure transport systems (following cars, insulated crates, etc.) when the work can be transported differently (physical accompaniment of the works, digital transport, etc.). And, obviously, reduce the number of works exhibited and reduce the distance traveled by them... The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille took the risk last winter with “Experience Goya”, “demonstrating that it is possible to produce a quality exhibition while seeking both a rich scientific and cultural message and a controlled ecological footprint,” according to The Shift Project.

On the occasion of the assembly of its new permanent exhibition called “Climate Emergency” led by the climatologist Jean Jouzel, the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, in Paris, was also heavily involved in the process. The exhibition was therefore created with the objective of minimizing the footprint thanks to a long lifespan, of at least ten years, and reusable wooden structures. To raise awareness among visitors, the City has set up a “sustainable mobility” rate (€12 instead of €13) for visitors who come by bike upon presentation of a cloakroom ticket proving that they have left a helmet. Sobriety, eco-design of exhibitions, life cycles of works and materials are now concrete questions on which to work… But fundamentally too, the sector is questioning itself. A year ago the Center Pompidou, which claims to be the first public cultural institution to obtain HQE sustainable use certification, organized the public forum “Climate, which culture for which future? » in the presence of eminent representatives of the cause. Three days to reflect in the presence of artists, researchers, anthropologists like Philippe Descola, activists like Camille Etienne, economists like Timothée Parrique and even entrepreneurs like Éva Sadoun. While on the ground, collectives are being organized, like the Augures founded by four consultants, to support museums, communities but also art schools wishing to activate and formalize their transition... Improve the thermal insulation of buildings , relocating museums outside the walls, grouping the transport of works, systematically using resources for the creation and end of life of scenographies are all concrete avenues, as are reviewing patronage links with polluting industries... Since it will have escaped no one's notice that art, and in particular the most famous works (a copy of “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci at the Royal Academy of Arts, “Spring” by Botticelli at the Uffizi in Florence, etc. ), are at the top of the targets of ecological activism. Attacking the window of a master's painting is now one of the spectacular actions with a much greater reach than any other. Art is not the enemy, one might retort. However, it also shows that it is very close to the reactor core.