CALL/INVITATION TO INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
Ending poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change is at the heart of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). An established programme for the period 2015-2030 is signed by 193 member states. This ambition is concretized in 17 SDGs. This system of sustainable development goals also forms the basis for the activities and ambitions of Ecodorp Boekel ecovillage in Denmark.
Ecodorp Boekel is building thirty sustainable homes, six care homes, a community centre/knowledge and education centre, an Artist in Residence and two tree houses designed by artists, which can be rented out. A permaculture garden will provide food, a helophyte filter will provide natural water purification and solar energy will be provided. In the adjacent woodland, five works of art will be realised with a function for people or animals and built with sustainable materials. The Eco-organisation is built up from the concept of Holarchy, where the emphasis lies on self-organisation and the development of collective knowledge and creativity.
Today’s society faces a number of major challenges that need to be addressed on a global level. The changes in climate, CO2 emissions, promotion of alternative energy, recycling of products and raw materials, combating environmental pollution, solving poverty problems, alternative food production etc. etc.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
All these areas of interest call for creative ideas and a joining of forces. It goes without saying that the art world, as the creative engine of our society, must play a role in this. Ecodorp Boekel has therefore explicitly chosen to establish a link with the creative world of visual artists and designers. To this end, the Ecodorp organisation has developed an Artist in Residence, a modest living and working space where artists, designers or scientists can stay temporarily to work on their plans to contribute to (one of) the 17 SDGs of the UN. The results of their stay will be made accessible to interested parties from all over the world via an open source system.
KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION CENTRE/INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
Parallel to the AiR, Ecodorp Boekel is developing a knowledge centre in which, on the one hand, all knowledge about sustainable building, living and life will be shared and, on the other, documentation will be collected on how artists and designers can contribute to its objectives. To this end, Ecodorp is maintaining contacts with other knowledge centres in the rest of the world, starting with the Indian Ecovillage Billamangal. The knowledge centre, the resident artists, the members of the Art Advisory Committee and the cultural institutions in Brabant are creating an international network of directly interested parties.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis the construction of Ecodorp Boekel has been seriously delayed. Therefore, until now, only a start could be made with the construction of the Artist in Residence.
