WE ARE OCEAN – Youth empowerment for ocean protection

Anne-Marie Melster

Curator and Producer

ARTPORT_making waves

https://artport-project.org/

 

ARTPORT_making waves

ARTPORT_making waves started as a curatorial collective at the intersection of art, climate change and sustainability in New York, Valencia, Spain in 2006 to draw attention to the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to climate change through themed exhibitions, film productions, workshops, conferences and educational programs.

Today we are a network of international curators and collaborators in different parts of the world and connect interdisciplinary projects through the arts to science and sustainable development. Artists and curators are our protagonists, but scientists and policymakers have become important stakeholders in our work because our final goal has shifted from mere awareness-raising to contributing to real change.

We started with sensitization and are today strong advocates for solutions. These solutions can only be pushed through following different agendas. Our focus on collaborating with scientific institutions, supranational organisations, museums, educational entities, international conferences, governments and private foundations is helping us to diversify these agendas and to contribute to a society which takes sustainable and ecological development seriously.

 

WE ARE OCEAN

WE ARE OCEAN is an official project contributing to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. An interdisciplinary art project to raise awareness about our interdependence with the ocean in Berlin, Venice, Marseille, Vancouver from 2019 to 2021.

WE ARE OCEAN gathers institutions, cultural practitioners, policymakers, the youth and the general audience to discuss solutions for improving ocean health and reducing the human impact on the environment. Our contribution aims to stimulate educational and behavioural change among young people and adults through art and scientific programs including workshops, panel discussions, scientific interventions, art performances and film screenings.

WE ARE OCEAN draws inspiration from Epeli Hau’Ofa’s works “We are the ocean” which is a collection of essays, fiction and poetry by the Tongan writer and ethnographer. His work challenges dominant discourses about Oceania and prescriptions for its development. We acknowledge his work as a source of inspiration and a guide for our mission throughout the project such as the creation of alternative perspectives and solutions to implement climate action and the full integration of indigenous worldviews in the art, science and education.

 

 

Anne-Marie Melster
Co-Founder & Executive Director ARTPORT_making waves

Anne-Marie Melster is co-founder and executive director of ARTPORT_making waves. As an international curator and art critic, she has made a name for herself in the field of art and climate change through numerous interdisciplinary art projects with ARTPORT_making waves. She started her career in contemporary art in 1999.

Since 2006 as the director of ARTPORT_making waves, she has collaborated with internationally renowned artists (Olafur Eliasson, Tino Sehgal, Barthélémy Toguo, etc.), institutions (United Nations, Pro Helvetia, Embassy of Switzerland in Paris,

TBA21, Grand Palais Paris, IUCN, Kunstmuseum Bonn, etc.) and companies, to raise awareness about climate change through the arts. She has created art programs for various climate conferences, including the COP21 in Paris in 2015 and COP23 in Bonn in 2017.

Each of these programs involves entire cities in various locations to address civil society as well as the delegates, thereby contributing to social change. Last but not least, she is one of the curatorial pioneers at the interface of art and climate change.

She holds an M.A. in Hispanic Sciences, Art History and Political Sciences of the University of Hamburg and is fluent in 7 languages. Anne-Marie is a fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar and contributes regularly to international art magazines. Anne-Marie is a German national, fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan. She has lived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, many years in

Valencia, Spain and is residing now in between Paris and Germany.