COP 21 : A challenge for everyone and an aborted project.

With the event of COP 21 and its problematic, the French government supported all the initiatives that would contribute to become conscious of the situation. In this context the A.A.B. (Ateliers des Artistes de Belleville) and its members wanted to produce an exhibition that would reflect the artists commitment to the climate problematic. So the commission of the association I belong planned an exhibition entitled « Janus and Rebus are on the ice-bank… ». The title was not very clear and it was difficult to obtain contributions. So I decided, to participate and began to think about what to do to be exhibited.

Finally, I found several ideas and as I had the experience of the photo exhibition I tried to build the following project. With Photoshop and all the photos produced in September on La Géode I have designed about fifteen posters to promote the COP 21 event.   

These posters needed to be seen by the public, so I contacted the merchant association of the St. Paul Village and offered a collaboration for the duration of the conference from the 30th of November to the 12th of December. I would provide the posters to be displayed in the shop-windows and would have made a web advertising campaign. The merchants would present the posters in their shops and would support this experience their own way. Their main contribution being in financing the printing of the posters with recycle paper (the price is three times the price of a normal print). The budget was of 300 € for 12-15 shops, and the merchants would keep the poster at the end of the experience. I contacted the association on the 20th of October, I expected that they would have been able to react quickly and that they would be pleased to participate in an event that would follow the actuality. 

The reaction was very away from what I had expected. First, this temporary exhibition of posters was considered much too political, secondly the budget was too high and thirdly they were not able to decide quickly on the subject. I offered a modified and extended version of the project for a budget of 200 € after having printed a sample. The result of the printing was medium but that is one of the problems if we want to be ecological.

I never received any reply. The events that happened since in Paris as put an end to the project, but it shows how difficult the situation is for an artist to be exhibited in Paris.

Finally, I have produced my photos and posters and will only participate in the exhibition of the A.A.B.