VOX — Centre de l’image contemporaine

View of the exhibition Jonas Staal. _Climate Propagandas, Video Study_, VOX, 2023. Credit: Michel Brunelle.
Credits

Jonas Staal
Climate Propagandas

2023.01.14 - 03.04

The Chronopolitics program has a twofold objective: to provide a forum for artists advocating ethical stances on the future, and to prompt critical reflection on the social and political issues around the notion of time.

The work Climate Propagandas, Video Study explores how the climate crisis is interpreted and weaponized within various ideological discourses.

While liberal climate propaganda argues that ecological collapse is the responsibility of human individuals, rather than extractivist corporations, libertarian climate propaganda considers climate breakdown as a new resource for geomarkets and interplanetary colonization. And while conspiracist climate propaganda claims climate change is nothing but a hoax to enforce population control, eco-fascist climate propaganda takes it as an opportunity to double down on the question of who, in ecosystem collapse, has the racial right to survive and who does not.

Through examples of popular and political culture, from the nature documentaries of David Attenborough to the Marvel superhero franchise, the video study attempts to dissect the conflicting realities each of these climate propagandas brings about.

Read the article “Climate Propagandas” by Jonas Staal on e-flux.