WHAT \ U.N. Safe Planet Campaign \ Art Exhibitions & Public Outreach

Respect Festival, Prague

Safe Planet and Project Ahoj! at the Respect World Music Festival on Štavnice Island in Prague, June 16 - 17, 2012

Opening Reception at Muzeum Kampa: June 13, 17:30

At Prague's Respect Music Festival, Project Ahoj! will launch its multi-year campaign to educate the public about the hazards of plastic pollution and e-waste to both human health and the environment.  From 2012 - 2015, Project Ahoj! will visit 'hot spots' of environmental degradation around the world including Nigeria, Bali, Hawai'i, Cameroon, Brazil, Norway and Croatia. The project is supported by Art Dialogue, 5Gyres Institute, Rachot, the US Embassy of Prague and the Norwegian Embassy of Prague. 

Working with 5Gyres, ArtDialogue will be crafting a *‘Festival Junk Boat' made of 500 recycled plastic bottles that will travel back and forth between an e-waste recycling sculpture at Museum Kampa and the Respect Festival location on Štvanice Island.  5Gyres Leslie Moyers will lead the construction and design team which will include international students learning about art and sustainability in the Bohemian Workshops at ArtMill.  The e-waste sculpture is created to collect old or broken mobile phones.  After the festival, the old mobile phones will be taken to Prague Zoo where there is a permanent receptable for this type of e-waste.  Prague Zoo wil receive 10 Kc for each phone and the money will be donated to support the keepers of the National Park in Cameroon that protect gorillas amongst other animals.

Safe Planet will operate a special tent among the many vendor booths that will be set up for the festival and the surrounding grounds of the beautiful island will be a venue for sculpture. The Safe Planet Tent will offer a relaxing place to cool off and a venue to see exhibited works by international and local artists including  Barbara Benish (CZ/USA), Chris Jordan (USA), Rahmin Bahrani (USA), Jason deCaires Taylor, (UK/Mexico), Dianne Cohen (USA), Manuel Mansylla (USA/Guatemala), Svatopluk Klimeš (CZ) as well as a screening room to show award-winning films including Bag It!, Midway and Plastic Bag.

The Respect World Music Festival was initiated in Prague in 1995 under the auspices of the current Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, Karel Schwarzenberg and was supported by the late President Vaclav Havel.  Organized by Rachot Production in cooperation with Prague City Hall and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the festival has a long tradition of presenting world music in an open atmosphere that promotes tolerance and democracy while celebrating international cultures. Held in an outside venue on an island in the Vltava River in the heart of Prague, the festival draws thousands of viewers each summer. One of the main goals of the project is to contribute to the development of a multicultural and non-judgmental society by presenting musical groups from different cultural regions and religious perspectives.  It seeks to inform the audience about both the musical traditions of different cultures as well as about the complex political and social realities of different ethnic groups in the Czech Republic and worldwide.

* To learn about The 5Gyres 'JunkRaft' which will serve as inspiration for the Festival Junk Boat, visit http://junkraft.com/home.html

OPEN CALL TO ARTISTS. Outdoor Sculptures to be installed on ŠtvaniceIisland during the World Music Festival, June 15-17, 2012. Themes are focused on the environment and our place in the world as an open society, sharing cultures, languages, and art.  Artists must arrange own installation and transportation. Please send images to marketa@artmill. eu by June 5.

Download file - Download Poster HERE / Plakát ke stažení ZDE