COOL STORIES is a biennial video and animation contest on climate change, created by ARTPORT_making waves. The third edition includes 19 videos of artists from different countries focused on forests, honouring the United Nations 2011 International Year of Forests. It was premiered at the Swiss Architecture Museum, in conjuction to Art 42 Basel and it has been shown at the Parsons New School of Desing and Lincoln Center in New York, so far.
Honoring the United Nations Year of Forests, a majority of the 19 videos comment on the dangers of deforestation and the malaises that follow climate change, from starvation to disappearing polar bears. However, eery and ominous moods are countered with humor, irony, and surprising solutions. The approaches are very different, but have a common message: If we destroy nature, we threaten our own existence.
Winner Sergio Sotomayor was awarded with a residency grant at Guapamacátaro in Michoacan, Mexico. Based in Murcia, he has had major exhibitions in Spain and abroad including the Centro Parraga, Manifesta8 parallel, Murcia, 2010; several solo shows at Blanca Soto Gallery, Madrid; ESTAMPA; CologneOFF VII Baltic Sea in Riga, Latvia, and received previous grants such as the one from the Casa de Velazquez, Madrid and the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation, Mallorca. His winning entry reflects the phenomenon of mass production of wood.
COOL STORIES III Jury members included: Mahen Bonetti, Founder & director of African Film Festival, Inc., New York; Kathleen Bühler, Curator, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; Fredi Casco, Artist, editor, curator and Visual Arts advisor at the Paraguayan Culture Ministry; Isa Cucinotta, Programming associate of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York; Javier Duero, art critic and curator, Madrid, Spain; Alicia Marvan, Program director, Residency Guapamacátaro Arts & Ecology, Mexico; Macu Moran, art researcher and director of VideoArtWorld, Barcelona, Spain; Lyle Rexer, Curator and critic, New York and Sabine Maria Schmidt, Curator at the Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany.
Selection:
Tricia McLaughlin: History of the World, 3'30'', 2008
Sergio Sotomayor: Wood II, 3', 2010
IngridRobertMwangiHutter: Reviving The Fittest, 2'50'', 2011
Anna Beata Barańska: Man Belongs to Earth, 3', 2009
Emma Wieslander: Dirty, Dirty Trees, 3', 2011
Andrea Bianconi: FightingNature, 2'25'', 2011
Sharon Zhu Xiaoyuan: Erosion, 1'51'', 2011
Richard Jochum: Rear Window View, 3'
Baptist Coelho: No Go, 3', 2011
Lukáš Matejka: Breathing exercise on a green meadow: 20M, 1', 2008
Eva Marosy-Weide: Situation Normal, 3', 2009
Sergio Cruz: Exotica, 3', 2009
Annie Briard: A Plant Wedding, 3', 2008-2009
artalquadrat (Gema and Monica del Rey): Healing, 2'57'', 2008
Lesser González Alvarez: Funerary Boat, 3', 2011
Wojtek Klakla & Pierre-Alain Morel: Welcome to the Jungle, 1'57'', 2011
Oscar Boyson: The Value of Trees, 2'51'', 2011
Guillermo Hermosilla Cruzat: Vosque, 3', 2011
Lemeh42: Per fare un tavolo (How to make a table), 2'31'', 2009