Exclusive documentary: ecology in the arts

How can ecology influence an artistic practice to the core? With this question, documentary maker Sarah Baur went to approach choreographer Jérôme Bel and theatre maker Benjamin Verdonck. They took her along on their journey as artists, their ecological commitment and how it affects all their projects today. Watch the unique documentary 'CLMT SHIFT ART' here in full.

On the occasion of the climate summit in November, documentary maker Sarah Baur interviewed artists Benjamin Verdonck and Jérôme Bel about their search for a more ecological way of living and making art. This quest ranged from individual choices in their private lives over collective appeals to the sector to the sustainable reinvention of their own artistic practice.

Benjamin Verdonck: 'I have always had the desire to extend the ecological sensitivity of my surroundings into my own practice. By practice, I mean how a work is created. That is not only the materiality of the work, but also who you work with, how their salary compares to your own, or the way you want to tour. Certainly in the light of the ecological mutation, it has proven to be a good attitude not to always want the biggest, the furthest or the most.'

Jérôme Bel: 'There has been an internationalisation of dance in the last thirty years. I am part of a kind of caste of international artists who travel a lot, quickly and cheaply, to very distant countries. When I became aware of this crisis, my first decision was to stop flying. That is shooting myself in the foot. It is saying: I am destroying my economy. I am destroying the principle around which my economy revolves: touring internationally.'