Spatial oddities: examining sustainability in art and beyond

Considering that issues of sustainability in contemporary art practices are still fairly little discussed among art professionals such as artists, curators, and scholars, this article sheds light on a complex and urgent problem that involves the entire art world with its developed traditions and structures. However, due to the scale of this issue, the authors have limited the focus of this article to the mobility of artworks, artists, and the wider public. Simultaneously as pointing critically to the extensive mobility and travelling patterns commenced by the wide international art world, the article asks about the role and responsibility of an artist in this and speculates on what ways artworks and their formats can have an impact. The article provides insights into a selection of existing art genres, their formats, delivery, and methods.
The first part introduces the concept of art tourism with examples of its impact on environmental sustainability. The latter part presents a selection of artworks from the past and present, which, perhaps unintentionally, address or involve
sustainability issues through innovative and alternative approaches related to the presentation and accessibility of the artworks. The selection of artworks in the article intends to constitute a starting point for reflections on the tensions and contradictions of what we define as sustainable within the arts. The article maps out existing and historical approaches for presenting art, which seem not to require travel to be able to see or visit the works. In other words, rather than aiming to provide concrete solutions for the current environmental situation or to analyse in-depth the presented individual artworks and their ‘correctness’ or supposed impact on the climate crisis, this article provides an inspirational selection of genres, formats, and methods, which have been emerging throughout the decades with alternative strategies. In our perspective, these
examples and methods can be considered as models for future developments in the arts that take sustainability issues into account.