Conference on Rethinking Cultures of Environmentalism in Eastern and Northern Europe
KUMU Art Museum Tallinn
14-15 September 2023
Conference paper by Maja and Reuben Fowkes
A system in which many worlds fit: plural environmentalisms of the Socialist Anthropocene
The accumulation of environmental disasters in the twilight years of the system and the prominent role of ecological protests in hastening its demise have coloured perceptions of attitudes and practices towards the natural world under socialism. A corrective to prevalent catastrophist accounts can be found in artistic engagements with environmental transformations, which reveal the multiplicity of approaches to nature that flourished in the furrows of socialist modernity. This presentation will consider how art practices illuminate the complexity of the Socialist Anthropocene, uncovering the distinctive traits and plurality of the environmental history of twentieth century socialisms, while also demonstrating the coexistence within the system of a variety of environmentalisms, from the latent eco-consciousness nurtured by mass movements for nature protection to the resurgence of indigenous worldviews and spread of ecological activism.
