CO2 GREEN DRIVE PROJECT EXHIBITED AT KLIMA REBILD - WITH THE CO2 3D PAINTING SCULPTURE, THE 7 YEAR TIME-LINE AND THE BISON CAVE PAINITNG

Jacob Hartmann from Copenhagen's Municipality and Sharing Copenhagen, held the opening speech for the exhibition. Mr. Hartmann has been a great supporter of CO2 Green Drive throughout the years and have worked with us on several projects and climate awareness events.

Niels Moes, who is the director of the Rebild Center exhibition space also held a speech and introduced Mr. Hartmann and the artists in the exhibition. The Polar Bear being speared in the upper left corner, is a sculpture by Jens Galshiøt who was also in the exhibition. A sculpture that in a much larges size was also exhibited in Paris, during COP21 in 2015. The same sculpture that will be placed on Christiansborg Slotsplads in Copenhagen on April 15th 2016, and the version in a bove image on Union Square in New York in connection to Earth Day on 17th of April, 2016.



There was also a lovely video installation by Kristina Stoltz, that she has done in collaboration with her artist group POLAK. They are currently crowdfounding for their next project, you can go and support them HERE. Parts of the above video was shown in the exhibition.

It was great to see the by Cotter lasercut 3D CO2 painting sculpture again, that was last hung on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. It has found a new home in Rebild and seems very happy in its new place.
See more about how it was made HERE

In Rebild, we found some trees that was perfectly aligned, and was perfect to hang the sculpture on.

We first started by gathering the 16 pieces as a puzzle on the ground. According to the producer of the paint called KNOxOUT used for the sculpure, each square meter painted with this paint (that has nano technology in it), breaks down NOx in the same way one grown tree does. In other words, by hanging the sculpture on this spot, it was like installing 16 full grown trees. Not that the air quality in Rebild was anywhere as filled with NOx as where it was hung in Copenhagen.

Then piece by piece, we put the sculpture together on a frame attached to the trees.

All done! Thanks again to the Rebild handymen crew for their help! Not to forget Will Gurley who helped design the drawings for the artwork, Christian Riis from Grounded Craftwork who helped build it and of course Lasse Bentzen who assisted in the the production back in 2014.

The CO2 3D sculpture was hung close to the entrace of the cave, also on the premises.

Once inside, it is like an underground cathedral filled with art.

The caves was previously owned by the old school Danish sculptor Anders Bundgaard, who used the cave to store the casts for his sculptures. He is most know for the wonderful sculpture in Copenhagen called Gefion. In the above image, one of the molds from the sculpture can be seen, a Bul/Ox/Bison.

You can see the Bull to the far right in the above image of the Gefion sculpture in Copenhagen, close to the Little Mermaid Sculpture.

The whole concept of the CO2 Green Drive Project is inspired by the Bison Cave Painting Theory. The theory is based on the fact that there are very often found Bison cave painitng all around Europe. Why the Bison? Well, the Bison was one of the smaller animals at the time, had alot of meat on its body, and skin and warm wool that could be used by the humans. It was still however very dangerous to confront a Bison with wooden spears, stones and bare hands.

It took generations of cave people to figure out the best way to overome  this great challange, in collaboration.This is why the Shaman in the group would paint the groups biggest challange on their cave wall. This so they could touch it, talk to it, throw stones and spears at it, vizualizing their challenge to be able to overcome it outside the cave, in reality. This was the intuitive idea for the early artists. To paint the challanges that they needed to overcome, on the wall. Makes sense to me!

One of the best ways they figured out how to kill the Bison, was to trick it to run after them. When they were about to run out over the cliff, they would grab on to a rope so they would not fall down. This while the Bison would run out over the cliff, to its death down below.

To honor the original artists who painted Bisons in caves all over Europe, we decided to recreate a Bison painting in the Rebild cave. When walking around in the cave on the reserach trip, previous to the exhibition, this wall popped out asking to be used for a painting of a Bision.

This was the visualization of how it could look.

In collaboration with the local artist and art teacher Christina Siggaard and her 7 art students from Rebild School of Culture's Art Department, the above Bison painting was created. It was wonderful to see another cave painting of a Bison live, being able to touch it with my hands.

At another area in the cave, 50 of Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen's "Little Sun's" were installed. They run on solar power, and are exchanged everyday of the exhibition, with 50 ones, that has been charged by the sun outside the cave. The sculpture that can be seen in the middle of the above image, is by Anders Bundgaard and is called "The Snow is Melting". A nice connection to Mr. Eliasson's Ice Melting sculptures, he have installed in both Copenhagen and in Paris in connection to COP21.

The main inspiration for the performance concept of CO2 Green Drive, has been taken from The Bison Cave Painting Theory. It is based on the following train of thoughts in 2008: If the intuition of humans is to paint their greatest challenges on their cave walls, to visualize overcomming the thier challenges (The Bison) together, outside of the cave; Then how can this be recreated in connection to the Climate Conference COP15, that was going to take place in Copenhagen, in the late fall of 2009?

A conference where the worlds most powerful people was meeting in a group under the same roof (The Cave), to figure out how they in collaboration should stop the the biggest threat humanity has ever been confronted with: The Climate Crisis. A crisis that to a large extent is caused by CO2 in our athmosphere, creating the "Green House Gas Effect", heating up mother earth and melting the Poles. In above image you can see the projection of the CO2 painting performance taking place LIVE, on a huge globe on Rådhuspladen (the Times Square of Copenhagen).

These thoughts led up to the idea to paint our current biggest challenge on the Virtual Cave Wall of Copenhagen. The thought that Copenhagen during COP15 was going to be the cave wall for the whole worlds attention and media, who had their focus on the city during those historic days. Days when the worlds leaders was gathered and were supposed to make the right decisions for the future of the population of our planet. The above image is the webinterface where all the vehicles could be seen LIVE as little dots, while driving the CO2 shaped route in the streets of the city.

The concept developed, was to virtually paint our times Bison - the CO2 symbol, over Copenhagen with the help of the very technology and ways that could be of great help to reduce the climate crisis. This in the form of Fossil Free vehicles, GPS Satellite technology and climate aware humans in a coordinated collaborative, interactive performance. See more about the actual performance HERE

The 3D CO2 Painting Sculpture, was created in 2014 as an art piece. It is based on the virtual painting created by the 100 fossil free vehicles as "brushes" and the GPS technology as "paint" in connection to COP15 in 2009. In the above image, I feel the piece works the best. In the dark with the CO2 symbol lit up by LED lights, looking alot like a neon Hotel sign in the streets of New York.

Another part of the exhibition, was the 7 year time line of The CO2 Green Drive Project.

It was created on a 8 meter long wall, with a Neon Green sprayed line.

It took about 6 hours (00:00 - 06:00) to complete the collage that cronologically documents The CO2 Green Drive Project, from 2008 to 2015. It was a mindblowing experience to re-live 7 years in images, flyers, notes, stickers, posters, maps and random memoribilia. Made me think of a book!

The natural progression of the CO2 Green Drive has lead to political and climate activism, that in turn has lead to the current role as a political candidate in the new Danish Green Political Party: The Alternative

The final version of time-line, with a man in green.



A little video of the Time-Line - with the tune "Horizons" by LTJ Bukem.



Image to the left from the Roskilde 2010 version of the project, and to the right a original Lithograph of the Roskilde CO2 route, colored in by Sasha Estella Fuglsang Mikkelsen.

Another sculpture outside was of a Penguin in ice, by Søren Lyngbye. Out in the water, he had also placed a mobile Frog sculpture, energized by solarpanels when riding its bike.

To see more about the exhibition, go to the Rebild Centers site HERE

Finally, thanks Jens Galshiøt (above) for the ride to Odense on my way back from Rebild after the opening, and for a tour of the workshop and gallery. Looking forward to the collaboration in New York on April 17th!

THERE IS NO PLAN B - COP 21 IN PARIS - COLLABORATION BETWEEN COPENHAGEN AND PARIS HAS BEEN INITIATED

Frankrigs ambassadør i Danmark, François Zimeray lancerede tanken til samarbejde d. 12. december 2014

Der er ingen plan B!

København og Den Franske Ambassade indleder klimasamarbejde med
CO2 Green Drive og danske kunstnere.

Som optakt til klimatopmødet COP21, der finder sted i Paris i december 2015, holdes en grøn kunstmanifestation på Kongens Nytorv. Efter udstillingsperioden på Kgs. Nytorv vil København Kommunes Teknik- og Miljøborgmester Morten Kabell (EL) officielt overrække værket til Paris og give stafetten videre.

2014 ser ud til at slå alle varmerekorder både i Danmark og for kloden samlet set. Det understreger behovet for en ambitiøs klimaaftale på FN’s klimatopmøde COP21 i Paris næste år. 

For at styrke opmærksomheden om klimaforandringerne og de mange veje til en reduktion af CO2-udledningen har den unge danske kunstner, Svend Sømod, har skabt en lysanimation, som bliver projiceret fra den Franske Ambassade over på et 3D-maleri, der hænger på Metroselskabets hegn på Kongens Nytorv. Maleriet måler 4 x 4 meter og er malet med farve indeholdende nanoteknologi, der for hver kvadratmeter nedbryder lige så meget NOx som et voksent træ. Maleriet er en 3D-illustration over København med en rute igennem gaderne formet som ”CO2” og installeret med LED-lys, der får energi fra solceller monteret øverst på hegnet. Værket kan ses et godt stykke ind i 2015.  

Kombinationen af et NOx nedbrydende maleri, LED-lys formet som ”CO2” og en videoanimation, der giver puls og bevægelse i decembermørket og er med til at påvirke byrummet og dets brugere.

Den Franske Ambassade på Kongens Nytorv ligger ved et af byens mest trafikerede lyskryds og med sin centrale beliggenhed er den således med til at skabe fokus på klimadagsordenen op til klimatopmødet i Paris næste år.

Kunstværket er ét ud af en række projekter lavet af CO2 Green Drive i efteråret 2014, hvor der blandt andet også blev sat en Guinness World Record for flest elbiler i en parade over Øresundsbroen. Projektet i samarbejde med Den Franske Ambassade er støttet af den danske solcelleproducent Gaia Solar, LED- lyset er sponsoreret af Osram, malingen af Boysen Paints, og produktionen af 3D-maleriet af Københavns Kommune - Sharing Copenhagen.

På samme måde som vi engang havde håb for COP15 i København, er det nu muligt at have et realistisk håb for COP21 i Paris. Der skulle gå 6 år inden de intentioner, der blev sat i gang i København kan blive en virkelighed i 2015. Ambitiøse beslutninger for fremtiden bliver nødvendige i Paris. der er ikke nogen plan B for vores jord.

For mere information: 

Den Franske Ambassade: Lone Garde – tlf: 33 38 47 07

mail: lg@institutfrançais.dk 

CO2 Green Drive: Jacob Fuglsang Mikkelsen – tlf: 60 85 16 75

mail: jacobfuglsang@co2greendrive.com

Teknik- og miljøborgmester Morten Kabell via pressechef Morten Rixen på tlf: 51 68 06 19

Alle fotografier af David Morrow

ELECTRIC CAR ACTION IN COPENHAGEN - PRESS RELEASE IN DANISH

Elbiler bryder tavsheden på Christiansborgs Slotsplads d.18. december kl 13.30

Torsdag d. 18. december kl. 13.00 vil en larmende kunstnerisk happening sætte fokus på den tavshed, som har præget elbilens fremtid i Danmark. Christiansborg Slotsplads er udgangspunkt for eventen, men alle sympatiserende bilister opfordres til at deltage, så kakofonien kan spredes til en landsdækkende protest.

Kunst-, Klima- og Teknologiprojektet CO2 Green Drive, som udsprang af COP 15, kommenterer miljøpolitiske emner via events, der forener kunstnerisk og politisk aktivisme.

Der ligger samtidig en række konkrete forslag fra Forenede Danske El-bilister (FDEL) og CO2 Green Drive, som står bag initiativet, bl.a. om et miljøtilskud til borgere, som investerer i el-biler. Kunstner og aktivist Jacob Fuglsang Mikkelsen står bag CO2 Green Drives mange events i og udenfor Danmark, hvor politisk og kunstnerisk aktivisme forenes i det Mikkelsen betegner som intentionel kunst, hvor aktivismen benyttes som kommentar til den politiske og ideologiske virkelighed og til at mobilisere folkelige bevægelser.

Denne gang er der fokus på elbilen som led i et paradigmeskifte i forholdet til brugen af fossile brændstoffer og olieindustriens geopolitiske og miljømæssige konsekvenser. Den kritik, som torsdagens event rummer, er inspireret af økokritiker og naturfilosof Arne Næss’ pointering af de problematiske strategier, han har kaldt “shallowecology” eller overfladisk/retorisk økologi, som dækker over politiske og industrielle lederes retoriske strategier, som kritiseres for i bedste fald at være uambitiøse. 



Den retoriske økologi står i modsætning til “deep ecology”: den gennemgribende økologi, hvor mennesket i stedet for at være primær aktør i økosystemet indgår som en sidestillet part og dermed bevæger sig bort fra det hidtidige niveau for ressource udnyttelse og kortsigtede miljøstrategier.

(Politiet der ses i baggrunden kom ud og sagde at vi havde afbrudt et møde med den 1 minut lange performance af medelemmerne i Forenede Danske Elbilister - FDEL)

 Både FDEL og CO2 Green Drive har udtrykt bekymring for de miljømæssige konsekvenser ved at nedprioritere omlægningen til elbiler. 



Fuglsang Mikkelsen har tidligere i år skabt opmærksomhed omkring området med opnåelsen af en Guinness verdensrekord for den største parade af elbiler foruden en række beslægtede aktiviteter i bl.a. Manilla, St. Petersborg, Hong Kong indenfor de seneste år. Et centralt element i de intentionelle kunstevents er at kunsten her skal have kommunikativ, politisk og folkelig appel og at ambitionen er at tilvejebringe politisk forandring. 

Kunsten skal således, ifølge Mikkelsen, være med til at skabe nye dagsordner og dermed veje til forandring ved at samle mennesker omkring aktuelle globale problemstillinger. 

Dermed er der tale om en form for kunst, som bevæger sig udenfor museernes og kunsthallernes mure og udnytter kunstens potentiale til at blive et aktivt element i diskussionen af demokratiske grundelementer som ansvar, magt og relationen imellem det private og det politiske. Også ved dette event er det fællesskabet og den aktive deltagelse, som forener miljømæssig bevidsthed, kunstneriske strategier og politiske visioner, hvorved grænserne imellem kunstværk og publikum er opløste og alle deltagere bliver skabere af eventen.

Evt. uddybning og individuelle interviews fås ved henvendelse til:

FDEL - Steen Frederiksen: mobil 20 51 70 80 - mail: steen.frederiksen@fdel.dk

Jacob Fuglsang Mikkelsen: mobil 60 85 16 75 - mail: jacob.fuglsang@gmail.com

Text by Ann-Sofie Gremaud


UPDATE 2015!

Siden Elbils aktionen blev holdt den 18. december 2014 og vi fik Skatteudvalget til at være nød til at stoppe deres møde om støtte til elbiler i finansloven, er der sket noget. 

"Skatteudvalget rejser fra den 1.til den 5. marts 2015 til Californien for at studere initiativer der er sat i gang på det grønne område – herunder skatte- og afgiftsincitamenter for grønne teknologier, bl.a. for elbiler. 

Desuden skal udvalget drøfte fremtidsperspektiverne inden for it og innovation, globale virksomhedens sociale ansvar i relation til skatte planlægning og perspektiverne omkring internationalisering/skat.

Der planlægges bl.a. møde med Californiens guvernør Jerry Brown. Desuden mødes delegationen med danske iværksættere i Silicon Valley for at drøfte skattevilkår og erfaringer med at drive virksomhed i Californien og med lokale skatte-, energi- og miljømyndigheder. 

Endvidere besøger delegationen bilproducenten Tesla om fremtidens elbiler og Innovation Center om bl.a. venture capital og skatteforhold."

Se mere på Folketingets webside HER

COP21 IN PARIS AND 5TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF COP15 IN COPENHAGEN

Grøn kunstmanifestation på den Franske Ambassade - COP21 i Paris 2015

Som optakt til klimatopmødet COP21, der finder sted i Paris om et år, og som markering af 5-året for COP15 i København, holdes en grøn kunstmanifestation på Kongens Nytorv. Arrangmentet lanceres ved en reception på den Franske Ambassade fredag d. 12. december kl. 16.00 – 17.30

Den unge danske kunstner Svend Sømod har skabt en lysanimation, som vil blive projiceret fra den Franske Ambassade over på et 3D maleri, der hænger på Metroselskabets hegn på Kongens Nytorv.
Maleriet måler 4 x 4 meter og er malet med farve indeholdende nanoteknologi, der for hver kvadratmeter nedbryder lige så meget NOx som et voksent træ. 

Maleriet er en 3D- illustration over København med en rute igennem gaderne formet som ”CO2” og installeret med LED lys, der får energi fra solceller monteret øverst på hegnet.

Den Franske Ambassade på Kongens Nytorv ligger ved et af byens mest trafikerede lyskryds med en konstant trafik af biler om dagen og mennesker, der skal ud og feste om natten. Kombinationen af et NOx nedbrydende maleri, LED-lys formet som ”CO2” og en hypnotisk videoanimation, der giver puls og bevægelse i decembermørket, vil kunsten helt konkret påvirke byrummet og dets brugere.

Manifestationen er ét ud af en række projekter lavet af CO2 Green Drive i efteråret 2014, hvor der blandt andet også blev sat en Guinness World Record for Flest Elbiler i en Parade over Øresundsbroen.

CO2 Green Drive er et Kunst, Klima og Teknologi projekt der i 2008 blev initieret af Det Danske Kultur Institut. Solcellepanelet er støttet af den danske solcelleproducent Gaia Solar, LED- lyset er sponsoreret af Osram, malingen af Boysen Paints og produktionen af 3D-maleriet af Københavns Kommune - Sharing Copenhagen.

Begivenheden er en oplagt anledning for ambassaden til at gøre opmærksom på vigtigheden af næste års klimatopmøde i Paris. I 2009 var der stort håb om at klimatopmødet i København ville munde ud i afgørende beslutninger. Denne grønne kunstmanifestation vil være med til at skabe nyt håb for, at der i 2015 bliver taget nogle historiske beslutninger i Paris, for at fremme jordens klima.

Ved receptionen vil den unge pianist Kristian Marstal opføre to nykomponerede klaverværker:

A Descent into the Maelström og Protocol #1.

Tilmelding per mail og foto-ID nødvendig. 

THE 13TH OF DECEMBER 2009 VERSION OF THE CO2 PERFORMANCE IN COPENHAGEN

Two Tesla's, a Mini Hummer and a Biofuel run Novozymes Volvo lining up in front of Forum before the start of the CO2 Painting Performance. Each electric car was handed a TracTrac GPS modul on a silver platter by Mr Green, to use as paint when driving the CO2 route.


The Lynx on the Catwalk on Copenhagen's main Square Rådhuspladsen


The snake of cars over Queen Louise's Bridge with neon lights telling the date in the background


Chris Paine, the Director of the Documentary Film "Who Killed The Electric Car", documenting the project for his next film "The Revenge of the Electric Car"


Danish Man of Adventure, Hjalte Tin talks about his CO2 friendly vehicle that he will drive around the world in.


The Hopenhagen Globe with the CO2 Tag being drawn on by the almost 100 CO2 friendly cars and their GPS, projected by five projectors. The GPS moduls from TracTrac sent live information to the projector that screened the actual cars realtime as they moved through the streets in one long parade.

Above the CO2 tag on COWI's photo over Copenhagen and Tratrac's webinterface, showing each car on the right side, each with a different color dot and virtually painting one layer each og the final line.

Two Tesla's in fron t of The Danish National Art Gallery, shot by John Krøll as part of his 360 PAN-X documentation of the project.


Image shot out of the back window of the Electric Arriva Bus that the CO2 E - Race Crew, The Mr. Green Crew and the General Secretary of the Danish Cultural Institute Finn Andersen was all inside of during the performance.