Portraits of Climate

In "Portraits of Climate" we unite art and science in a unique collaborative endeavor. Over several months, artists and researchers exchange ideas and explore collaboration beyond their usual field of action, ultimately jointly creating an artwork.

The exhibition "Portraits of Climate" is on display at the University Museum from November 2024 until the end of March 2026. At the vernissage, over 240 visitors gathered to experience art and climate research in an extraordinary way. You can find more impressions of the exhibition and the opening event here.

Impressions of the exhibition. Photo: Uni Hamburg/L. Göttling/D. Masbaum.

"Portraits of Climate" is a knowledge exchange project within CLICCS, which brings together artists and scientists in co-creative processes. Collaborations between art and science have gained popularity in recent years, taking various forms, from science communication efforts to deep collaborative initiatives. We understand art and science as expressions of the same exploratory and creative human nature. This collaboration has the potential to expand perspectives on the pressing challenge of climate change and to create new spaces for thinking, inspiring us to approach these challenges in innovative ways.

“Doing arts is an open creative process. As is science.” – Prof. Dr. Jörn Behrens

“It is an ancient relationship between art and science. These disciplines are somehow siblings.“ – Daniele Alef Grillo

Each project is co-designed by an artist and one or more scientists. The collaboration began in 2023 and resulted in five artworks. All teams present aspects of climate change in their very own way. The different approaches combine objective and subjective, human and nature, rational and emotional, sensory and analytical. This variety is also reflected in the different formats: videos, paintings, sculptures, and installations. The artworks will be presented to the public from the 7^th November, 2024, at the University Museum in Hamburg. The six-month exhibition will display the joint work and encourage visitors to engage simultaneously with both art and climate research simultaneously.

“I hope that our joint artwork will touch people and open channels in people's minds that can only be opened through art.“ – Jenni Schurr

“Where is the aesthetic dimension in my research?” – Dr. Martin Döring

One team is interested in the sensory experience of waves, wind and erosion combined with future emission scenarios. Others are inspired by the aesthetic and emotional dimensions in mathematical formulas or calligraphic repetitions. Still others focus on research questions about an untouched forest in Hamburg's port area seen as a model for the future. One team aims at merging their scientific and artistic skills to investigate North Sea Shrimp fisheries, while others use scientific elements as inspirational seeds to explore climate justice, economic and political dependencies and extreme weather events and their causation.

“Portraits of Climate” awarded funding through the Transferfonds 2023 and is funded under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder.

Click below to learn more about each project!

Photo: Michela Curti/Lluc Vayreda Calbó