Fossil Free Culture NL (FFCNL) is a collective of artists, activists and cultural workers working at the intersection of art and climate activism. FFCNL engages in Strategic Artistic Disobedience to build a Fossil Free Future that is queer feminist, anti-racist, intergenerational, diverse, and decolonial. Our founding goal is to end oil and gas sponsorship of public cultural institutions in the Netherlands, and more broadly, to critically erode social license for the fossil fuel industry.
POSSIBLE FUTURES
The science makes clear, to anyone who follows it, that this is the last decade in which we can still meaningfully counter the magnitude of climate breakdown. We exist at a crossroads where a variety of futures are still possible. We believe in the power of art and disobedience combined to intervene in systems of power, and to amplify demands planet-wide for a livable future.
After years of focusing on ending fossil sponsorship in public cultural institutions, we are pleased to witness significant erosion of public social license for the fossil fuel industry. While we’re convinced it’s only a matter of time before the remaining public cultural institutions join the rest in rejecting oil and gas sponsorship, we of course intend to stick around and finish the job. As we complete this cycle of our work, we are building the scaffolding for our next: disseminating strategies of Artistic Disobedience to actively demand and describe other possible futures.
WHY DISOBEDIENCE
Because the social contract is catastrophically broken, and Earth’s life support systems are collapsing before our eyes – yet somehow those in power are still getting away with just kicking the can down the road. Unsurprisingly, large numbers of us have no intention of playing nice anymore. Here at FFCNL we are harbouring some pretty serious authority issues!
The primary cause of climate and ecological breakdown is the malign influence of the fossil fuel industry. The status quo is being held in place by their vested polluting interests, with an iron grip on government and economic systems worldwide. State capture is not too big a word. We are long past the point when traditional protest was capable of creating change. Disobedient disruption, strategically focused, can unbalance loaded playing fields and create serious pathways for interrupting systems of harm. The default future on offer is breathtakingly unjust and dystopian. Under these circumstances, we believe refusing to obey unjust laws, especially those that maintain and elevate fossil harm, becomes a civic duty.
WHY WITH ART
Because artists have the capacity to envision other worlds and devise tactics to make those worlds a reality. Art has the power to express directly and memorably, and counter public weariness with facts and figures. We believe that Strategic Disobedient Art has the power to communicate with the urgency needed to break through time-worn indifference.
Emotional activation is a necessary precursor to viscerally engage with deeper frames of human thought. Disruption opens emotional space for the possibility of that communication. Strategically constructed art can deliver messages in that space that leapfrog traditional mental roadblocks. Art has the power – and effective strategy can position it to reach more people. Crucially, to reach more specific people.
Join Us!
For a fossil-free culture – It’s about time!
Foundation
Fossil Free Culture NL is a foundation under Dutch law, founded on 22 December 2017, and a registered ANBI and cultural ANBI. Our board, registration details, policy plan and annual reports are published on the foundation page.