CLIMATE BIENNAL

CONTEXT | OBJECTIVES | ABOUT THE PROJECT | RESOURCES
NEWS | GALLERY

Resistance to current economic and social models cannot be merely reactive; it must be mobilizing and exemplifying viable alternatives. Just social transitions require creating unprecedentedly broad contexts of collaboration, generating spaces of imagination and collective hope that help us discover and strengthen new capacities for action.

The Climate Biennial is an event that seeks to imagine and activate new ways of inhabiting the world in the face of climate emergency and social polarization. It emerges as a meeting space for artists, scientists, businesses, communities, public institutions, and social organizations. Inspired by the idea that utopia is not a distant horizon but a collective practice in the present, it is designed as a nomadic, decentralized, collaborative, sustainable, playful, possibilistic, and accessible biennial.

The first edition of the Climate Biennial will take place in Avilés and other territories of Asturias in 2026. The choice of this territory emerged from an interdisciplinary artistic research process. Starting from a situated and sensitive approach, questions and new perspectives were identified regarding the multiple transitions Asturias is navigating, including energy, climate, and demographic changes. Specifically, Avilés, a historically industrial territory, is rethinking its urban model to meet the SDGs through its Urban Agenda, giving culture a central role. In just a few years, the city has shifted from being one of the EU’s largest carbon emitters to proposing a hybrid model with a strong commitment to environmental improvement, urban regeneration, and cultural, heritage, and ethnographic richness.

The Climate Biennial is the result of an alliance between the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, the Principality of Asturias, the Avilés City Council, and the Atelier itd foundation.

At Atelier itd we promote art and culture as essential capacities to accompany just transition processes. We seek to generate enthusiasm, foster collectivization, imagination, and sensitivity in processes that, due to their urgent and shifting nature, can often be discouraging or paralyzing.

Thematic area:
Art and communication, Just transitions

Lines of work:
Multi-stakeholder partnerships

Territory:
Asturias / Aviles

Duration:
February 2024 – Ongoing

Status:
In progress

Project website:
bienalclimatica.com

Partners:
Ministerio de cultura, Ministerio para la transición ecológica y el reto demográfico, Ministerio de vivienda y agenda urbana, Principado de Asturias, Ayuntamiento de Avilés.

Thematic area:
Art and communication, Just transitions

Lines of work:
Multi-stakeholder partnerships

Territory:
Asturias / Aviles

Duration:
February 2024 – Ongoing

Status:
In progress

Project website:
bienalclimatica.com

Partners:
Ministerio de cultura, Ministerio para la transición ecológica y el reto demográfico, Ministerio de vivienda y agenda urbana, Principado de Asturias, Ayuntamiento de Avilés.

Resistance to current economic and social models cannot be merely reactive; it must be mobilizing and exemplifying viable alternatives. Just social transitions require creating unprecedentedly broad contexts of collaboration, generating spaces of imagination and collective hope that help us discover and strengthen new capacities for action.

The Climate Biennial is an event that seeks to imagine and activate new ways of inhabiting the world in the face of climate emergency and social polarization. It emerges as a meeting space for artists, scientists, businesses, communities, public institutions, and social organizations. Inspired by the idea that utopia is not a distant horizon but a collective practice in the present, it is designed as a nomadic, decentralized, collaborative, sustainable, playful, possibilistic, and accessible biennial.

The first edition of the Climate Biennial will take place in Avilés and other territories of Asturias in 2026. The choice of this territory emerged from an interdisciplinary artistic research process. Starting from a situated and sensitive approach, questions and new perspectives were identified regarding the multiple transitions Asturias is navigating, including energy, climate, and demographic changes. Specifically, Avilés, a historically industrial territory, is rethinking its urban model to meet the SDGs through its Urban Agenda, giving culture a central role. In just a few years, the city has shifted from being one of the EU’s largest carbon emitters to proposing a hybrid model with a strong commitment to environmental improvement, urban regeneration, and cultural, heritage, and ethnographic richness.

The Climate Biennial is the result of an alliance between the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, the Principality of Asturias, the Avilés City Council, and the Atelier itd foundation.

At Atelier itd we promote art and culture as essential capacities to accompany just transition processes. We seek to generate enthusiasm, foster collectivization, imagination, and sensitivity in processes that, due to their urgent and shifting nature, can often be discouraging or paralyzing.

Thematic area:
Art and communication, Just transitions

Lines of work:
Multi-stakeholder partnerships

Territory:
Asturias / Aviles

Duration:
February 2024 – Ongoing

Status:
In progress

Project website:
bienalclimatica.com

Partners:
Ministerio de cultura, Ministerio para la transición ecológica y el reto demográfico, Ministerio de vivienda y agenda urbana, Principado de Asturias, Ayuntamiento de Avilés.

Resistance to current economic and social models cannot be merely reactive; it must be mobilizing and exemplifying viable alternatives. Just social transitions require creating unprecedentedly broad contexts of collaboration, generating spaces of imagination and collective hope that help us discover and strengthen new capacities for action.

The Climate Biennial is an event that seeks to imagine and activate new ways of inhabiting the world in the face of climate emergency and social polarization. It emerges as a meeting space for artists, scientists, businesses, communities, public institutions, and social organizations. Inspired by the idea that utopia is not a distant horizon but a collective practice in the present, it is designed as a nomadic, decentralized, collaborative, sustainable, playful, possibilistic, and accessible biennial.

The first edition of the Climate Biennial will take place in Avilés and other territories of Asturias in 2026. The choice of this territory emerged from an interdisciplinary artistic research process. Starting from a situated and sensitive approach, questions and new perspectives were identified regarding the multiple transitions Asturias is navigating, including energy, climate, and demographic changes. Specifically, Avilés, a historically industrial territory, is rethinking its urban model to meet the SDGs through its Urban Agenda, giving culture a central role. In just a few years, the city has shifted from being one of the EU’s largest carbon emitters to proposing a hybrid model with a strong commitment to environmental improvement, urban regeneration, and cultural, heritage, and ethnographic richness.

The Climate Biennial is the result of an alliance between the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, the Principality of Asturias, the Avilés City Council, and the Atelier itd foundation.

At Atelier itd we promote art and culture as essential capacities to accompany just transition processes. We seek to generate enthusiasm, foster collectivization, imagination, and sensitivity in processes that, due to their urgent and shifting nature, can often be discouraging or paralyzing.

OBJECTIVES

The Climate Biennial aims to create contexts where new models of collaboration and interdisciplinarity toward just transitions can be experimented and practiced.

Specific objectives are developed at different territorial levels:

Local level: to contribute to rethinking current urban and territorial models through artistic practices, with particular attention to the needs, challenges, and opportunities of the territory.
National level: to highlight the innovative potential of a region in the face of ecological transition and promote collective visions of the future and possibilistic imaginaries.
European level: to encourage a sense of community built on a shared vision of purpose and transformation toward the common goal of achieving climate-neutral and more resilient territories.
Global level: to address global governance challenges in relation to climate realities in other parts of the world through the creation of transnational alliances.

OBJECTIVES

The Climate Biennial aims to create contexts where new models of collaboration and interdisciplinarity toward just transitions can be experimented and practiced.

Specific objectives are developed at different territorial levels:

Local level: to contribute to rethinking current urban and territorial models through artistic practices, with particular attention to the needs, challenges, and opportunities of the territory.
National level: to highlight the innovative potential of a region in the face of ecological transition and promote collective visions of the future and possibilistic imaginaries.
European level: to encourage a sense of community built on a shared vision of purpose and transformation toward the common goal of achieving climate-neutral and more resilient territories.
Global level: to address global governance challenges in relation to climate realities in other parts of the world through the creation of transnational alliances.

OBJECTIVES

The Climate Biennial aims to create contexts where new models of collaboration and interdisciplinarity toward just transitions can be experimented and practiced.

Specific objectives are developed at different territorial levels:

Local level: to contribute to rethinking current urban and territorial models through artistic practices, with particular attention to the needs, challenges, and opportunities of the territory.
National level: to highlight the innovative potential of a region in the face of ecological transition and promote collective visions of the future and possibilistic imaginaries.
European level: to encourage a sense of community built on a shared vision of purpose and transformation toward the common goal of achieving climate-neutral and more resilient territories.
Global level: to address global governance challenges in relation to climate realities in other parts of the world through the creation of transnational alliances.

APPROACH

The project is developed around three approaches: exploratory, social and cultural, and learning.

The design of the Climate Biennial follows an exploratory approach, fostering connections, debates, and reflections throughout the process.

Seeking to reach broader audiences than those usually engaged with contemporary art, the social and cultural approach experiments with curatorial formats and interdisciplinary methodologies that connect artistic creation, research, and social practice.

Finally, through a learning approach, we seek to test dynamics that promote interdisciplinarity, critical thinking, and empathy.

ACTIVITIES

European alliances to rethink and activate new biennial models: we are building a European consortium of biennials to rethink the cultural model from the perspectives of environmental, social, and tourism sustainability.

The 1st edition of the Climate Biennial: through a territorial analysis carried out with interdisciplinary artistic research, the city of Avilés was selected as the host of the first edition of the Climate Biennial in early 2026. During this inaugural edition, an exhibition and public program will unfold across emblematic sites in Avilés (factories, ports, neighborhoods, museums, churches…) and other symbolic territories in the Asturias region.

Territorial analysis and work: we work with the environment by connecting existing resources, strengthening local networks, and exploring innovative approaches to ecological transition. We promote situated nomadism, where the approach to the territory is generated through art and interdisciplinary research, including exercises in critical cartography and cultural mediation.

Interdisciplinary artistic research: we are launching three interdisciplinary artist residencies in collaboration with AEMET, the CIUDEN Foundation, and the Avilés Cultural Factory. A total of 17 local, national, and international artists will produce new works to be exhibited during the Climate Biennial.

Spanish National Collection of Art and Climate: we support the creation of a national collection of art and ecological transition, with both new commissions and acquisitions.

Dialogue spaces and public program: we propose activating community ties and spaces for playful and caring encounters, generating the necessary context to meet, dialogue, propose, and imagine possibilistic futures in service of the collective.

Sustainability: we are developing tools, strategies, and sustainability indicators for integration into governance, territorial relations, cultural tourism models, curatorial processes, production, communication, and impact measurement.

TARGET COMMUNITIES AND ENTITIES

RESULTS

APPROACH

The project is developed around three approaches: exploratory, social and cultural, and learning.

The design of the Climate Biennial follows an exploratory approach, fostering connections, debates, and reflections throughout the process.

Seeking to reach broader audiences than those usually engaged with contemporary art, the social and cultural approach experiments with curatorial formats and interdisciplinary methodologies that connect artistic creation, research, and social practice.

Finally, through a learning approach, we seek to test dynamics that promote interdisciplinarity, critical thinking, and empathy.

ACTIVITIES

European alliances to rethink and activate new biennial models: we are building a European consortium of biennials to rethink the cultural model from the perspectives of environmental, social, and tourism sustainability.

The 1st edition of the Climate Biennial: through a territorial analysis carried out with interdisciplinary artistic research, the city of Avilés was selected as the host of the first edition of the Climate Biennial in early 2026. During this inaugural edition, an exhibition and public program will unfold across emblematic sites in Avilés (factories, ports, neighborhoods, museums, churches…) and other symbolic territories in the Asturias region.

Territorial analysis and work: we work with the environment by connecting existing resources, strengthening local networks, and exploring innovative approaches to ecological transition. We promote situated nomadism, where the approach to the territory is generated through art and interdisciplinary research, including exercises in critical cartography and cultural mediation.

Interdisciplinary artistic research: we are launching three interdisciplinary artist residencies in collaboration with AEMET, the CIUDEN Foundation, and the Avilés Cultural Factory. A total of 17 local, national, and international artists will produce new works to be exhibited during the Climate Biennial.

Spanish National Collection of Art and Climate: we support the creation of a national collection of art and ecological transition, with both new commissions and acquisitions.

Dialogue spaces and public program: we propose activating community ties and spaces for playful and caring encounters, generating the necessary context to meet, dialogue, propose, and imagine possibilistic futures in service of the collective.

Sustainability: we are developing tools, strategies, and sustainability indicators for integration into governance, territorial relations, cultural tourism models, curatorial processes, production, communication, and impact measurement.

TARGET COMMUNITIES AND ENTITIES

RESULTS

APPROACH

The project is developed around three approaches: exploratory, social and cultural, and learning.

The design of the Climate Biennial follows an exploratory approach, fostering connections, debates, and reflections throughout the process.

Seeking to reach broader audiences than those usually engaged with contemporary art, the social and cultural approach experiments with curatorial formats and interdisciplinary methodologies that connect artistic creation, research, and social practice.

Finally, through a learning approach, we seek to test dynamics that promote interdisciplinarity, critical thinking, and empathy.

ACTIVITIES

European alliances to rethink and activate new biennial models: we are building a European consortium of biennials to rethink the cultural model from the perspectives of environmental, social, and tourism sustainability.

The 1st edition of the Climate Biennial: through a territorial analysis carried out with interdisciplinary artistic research, the city of Avilés was selected as the host of the first edition of the Climate Biennial in early 2026. During this inaugural edition, an exhibition and public program will unfold across emblematic sites in Avilés (factories, ports, neighborhoods, museums, churches…) and other symbolic territories in the Asturias region.

Territorial analysis and work: we work with the environment by connecting existing resources, strengthening local networks, and exploring innovative approaches to ecological transition. We promote situated nomadism, where the approach to the territory is generated through art and interdisciplinary research, including exercises in critical cartography and cultural mediation.

Interdisciplinary artistic research: we are launching three interdisciplinary artist residencies in collaboration with AEMET, the CIUDEN Foundation, and the Avilés Cultural Factory. A total of 17 local, national, and international artists will produce new works to be exhibited during the Climate Biennial.

Spanish National Collection of Art and Climate: we support the creation of a national collection of art and ecological transition, with both new commissions and acquisitions.

Dialogue spaces and public program: we propose activating community ties and spaces for playful and caring encounters, generating the necessary context to meet, dialogue, propose, and imagine possibilistic futures in service of the collective.

Sustainability: we are developing tools, strategies, and sustainability indicators for integration into governance, territorial relations, cultural tourism models, curatorial processes, production, communication, and impact measurement.

TARGET COMMUNITIES AND ENTITIES

RESULTS

RESOURCES

Nace la Bienal Climática