Sustainable mountain art = SMArt
08.03.2015
The Foundation for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions is implementing the programme, SMArt, in close cooperation with the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development and Canton Valais, an alpine region of Switzerland.
Started in July 2014, SMArt aims to increase awareness on the challenges of mountain regions through art. Four major themes of work have been selected as there are important for mountain regions all over the world: climate change, water management, food security and migration.
The task of the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions is to bring awareness to the authorities and civil society of the issues of sustainable development in mountain regions. It believes that culture is an original and powerful medium for achieving this. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) recognizes the role of art and culture in the processes of development and democratic change. It dedicates at least 1 percent of the total budget for culture.
The SMArt programme has arisen from merging these two approaches.
“Art can start conversations, bring subjects into the public sphere, expose abuses and point towards new worlds. It touches people in a deeper and more affecting way than academic and political discourse, to move us to tears, to laughter and to action,” Deeyah Khan told the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2014.
 The approach is the following:
• Cultural partners welcome to Switzerland artists from the South or East who are interested in the approach of SMArt. During their stay, the artists create a work reflecting their perception of the issues of their host region.
• The artists' works are exhibited in Switzerland at the end of their stay. During their residency, they also meet the public, artists and professionals.
• When the artists return to their own countries, their works are shown and their experience highlighted by a local cultural organisation so that debate with the local public can continue.
In 2014, Château Mercier Foundation in Canton Valais welcomed the first artist, Luana Letts of Peru. During her residency she chose to work on water, natural hazards and real estate speculation that has so profoundly changed Swiss alpine landscape. At the same time an artist from Switzerland Niels Ackermann went to Peru and told the story of Huaraz a city facing a dangerous situation: the melting of a neighbouring glacier. Their artwork was shown in a common exhibition at the Climate Change Summit (UNFCCC COP20) in Lima, Peru, in December 2014.
Two other cultural partners in Valais, Crochetan Theatre and Association artbellwald.ch, are currently hosting an artist coming from Rwanda, Cyril Ndegeya, and an artist from Mongolia, Maralgua Badarch.
At the moment, SMArt is an innovative concept to be refined during a trial year with all of the partners involved (June 2014 - June 2015). In the future SMArt aims to create a wide international network of artists, residences, cultural institutions and financial partners committed to the sustainable development of mountain regions.
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By Sarah Huber of the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions
Photos: Luana Letts
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