The COAL Prize 2022 invites artists to submit their works for the Coal Prize 2022 on the oceans. The winner of the COAL Prize will receive an endowment and a residency (optional) at the Domaine de Belval, property of the François Sommer Foundation.
The ocean is the largest ecosystem on the planet, so vast that it covers three quarters of the Earth's surface, so deep that it contains 97% of the available water and 99% of the Earth's living space by volume, and is home to unique flora and fauna in the very place where life first emerged.
The transformation of the oceans in the face of climate change and the collapse of biodiversity constitutes a real challenge both for the transition to action and for the awareness of processes that are sometimes elusive. Ocean warming, rising sea levels, acidification and deoxygenation of the seas, overexploitation of fisheries resources, plastic pollution, degradation of marine habitats, proliferation of invasive species... The ocean is succumbing to multiple threats.
The COAL Prize 2022 invites artists from around the world to explore these submerged universes to make them accessible to as many people as possible and to imagine new concrete actions to rekindle resilience with the water worlds. Applicants will be judged on the following criteria: artistic value, relevance (understanding of the theme – OCEANS), originality (the ability to introduce new approaches, themes, and points of view), pedagogy (ability to get a message across and raise awareness), social and participative approaches (engagement, testimony, efficiency, societal dynamics), eco-design and feasibility.
All proposals must be submitted by 1 March 2022 on the COAL server. The Prize will be awarded during a ceremony organized at the Museum of Hunting and Nature on 8 June. The winner of the COAL Prize will receive an endowment of 10,000 euros and a residency (optional) hosted by the Museum of Hunting and Nature at the Domaine de Belval, property of the François Sommer Foundation. In addition, all applications considered by COAL and the selection committee will become part of a network of artists and projects may be solicited or promoted for opportunities and actions carried out by COAL and its partners. More information about the Open Call can be found here.
Created in 2010 by the association COAL, the COAL Prize is a vector of identification, promotion and dissemination of artists who, throughout the world, testify, imagine and experiment with solutions for the transformation of territories, ways of life, organization, and production. Together, they contribute to make visible the changes, to build a new collective narrative, a new imaginary, a common heritage in development, a positive, optimistic and necessary framework for everyone to find the means and the inspiration to implement changes towards a more sustainable and fairer world.
