Cool Down Project #2

Following our project in Katowice, during COP 24, the artistic collective Cool Down is back for a new project, this time in Glasgow, for COP 26. Our objective for this second opus? To delve deeper into the process of creating slower, “cooler” art. We consider art and artists as powerful game changers, with a role to play beyond critique or raising awareness. By positioning artists at the heart of the decision-making process, our aim is to enable them to lead the way towards positive restraint, low-tech solutions, cooperation, and a slower way of doing things – approaches experts say are necessary to tackle the climate crisis.

Join us for this two-week show, to discover this artistic provocation, in which every piece of work value saving resources and means, and in which both objects and images are recycled. The artists have turned away from immediacy, instead using slower and more thoughtful processes that are closer to artisanal crafts. This is an invitation to take a stroll, to daydream.

The simplicity of the exhibition is deceptive; like in a massive machine, or an ecosystem, every part is vital for the proper functioning of the whole. This exhibition questions us, individually and collectively, on how our actions can function as levers or cogs that lead to greater change. The show asks each of us to play our part, as the hummingbird does in the eponymous Quechan fable, shared by the French farmer, writer and environmentalist of Algerian origin, Pierre Rahbi.*

Artist include: Samuel Coisne, Beth Dynowski, Bertrand Gadenne, Niholas Gaillardon, Alkmini Glcousiari, Edward Gwyn Jones, Gethan & Myles, David Leleu, Helene Marcoz, Virginie Piotrowski, Galerie Rezeda, Michael Smandek.

*The parable of the hummingbird, or q’inti in Quechan, tells of a tiny bird, who fights a forest fire alone by carrying beakfuls of water to throw on the blaze. When told by the inactive larger animals that this will not save the forest, the bird replies “I’m doing my part”.*The parable of the hummingbird, or q’inti in Quechan, tells of a tiny bird, who fights a forest fire alone by carrying beakfuls of water to throw on the blaze. When told by the inactive larger animals that this will not save the forest, the bird replies “I’m doing my part”.