An art festival and social experiment organized by the artist-run community Wooloo.org. It takes place in thousands of Danish homes during the United Nations Climate Change Conference from December 7th to 18th, 2009. It does not involve any actual exhibitions or physical works of art. The purpose of the festival is to create a breeding ground for alternative ways of living together.
Wooloo.org is organizing the people of Copenhagen to open their homes to 5.000 environmental
activists during the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Denmark this December.
Utilizing this large-scale human meeting as its exhibition platform, the NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN
festival invites artists and curators to submit work proposals.
New Life Happenings. Propose a happening or event for the thousands of NEW LIFE
COPENHAGEN hosts and guests during the UN Conference. Your concept should involve
collective action and will be implemented alongside works by artist groups Superflex (DK), Signa
(DK/A) and Raketa (SE) among others.
To learn more about NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN and to apply for participation, go to
http://www.wooloo.org/festival
From December 7th to 18th, 2009, representatives from 192 nations will gather in Denmark for
the UN Climate Change Conference to reach an agreement on a new global climate treaty to
replace the Kyoto Protocol. In addition to the large number of official UN delegates, thousands of
activists and Non-Governmental Organizations are bound for the conference which has been
called: “Humanity's last chance to combat a climate problem that is now all but overwhelming.”
(Tim Flannery, Scientist and environmental activist)
However, there will not be enough hotel space to accommodate most of these visitors, as all hotels
in Copenhagen and the surrounding area (including Sweden) have already been booked for the
official delegates. Furthermore, even if they were available, many visitors from all over the world
would not be able to afford them anyway.
In order to help solve this substantial problem, NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN is running a volunteer-
based campaign to get private Danish homes to open their door to the thousands of visitors.
Through street campaigns and collaborations with local organizations, NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN
aims to reach this goal by November.
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE?
At the end of Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth”, Gore lists ten simple life rules to combat global
warming. These include using less hot water, recycling more, etc. While Wooloo.org supports this
sustainable thinking, we also believe that the real problem will not be solved by asking individuals
to modify their behavior but only through addressing the wrongs of a global economic system that
thrives on exploiting natural resources and people.
Seen in this way, the climate crisis is not just a threat but also an opportunity: The opportunity to
create transnational commitment around radical re-thinkings of a destructive system. The first step
to create such change, is to develop alternatives to the current system and our existing cultural
codes.
That is our mission with NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN.
By asking artists to develop happenings and reflections for a new life - and then request that
thousands of participants implement them - Wooloo.org aims beyond the traditional art exhibition to
become an active organizer of experiments in civic engagement and social empowerment.
NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN is organized by the artists-run community Wooloo.org.
Founded in 2002, Wooloo.org is today used by more than 13.000 artists from over 140 countries.
Wooloo.org projects have been presented in such places as: Artists Space (USA), White Box
(USA), Basel Kunsthalle (Switzerland) and the Third Guangzhou Triennial (China).
For more information, see http://www.wooloo.org/festival
For further questions about NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN or Wooloo.org, please contact
Martin Rosengaard
Email: contact@wooloo.org
Phone: +45 6171 6101
Image: Francisca Angelica Canchumani Ricse, a peruvian shaman
Press contact
Kristina Sindberg, kristina@have.dk +45 24 860184
Michael Feder, michael@have.dk + 45 22434942
Different venues, Copenhagen