From 1 to 12 December 2014, Lima will host the Twentieth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 20). Peru will receive about 15,000 attendees representing 195 countries and stakeholders from international organisations, civil society, private sector and the media.

Coinciding with COP20, Hivos’ Arts Collaboratory programme will support two art projects that explore climate change from different perspectives: Hawapi and Hot Future.

HAWAPI is an annual art event based in Peru that takes a group of artists to a remote location in order to create interventions in public space. This year it took place at the foot of the Pariacaca glacier in the central Andes, the main source of water for the city of Lima. Tropical glaciers, however, are very susceptible to changes in global temperature. Despite the importance of Pariacaca, very few people in the capital are familiar with it or the potentially disastrous consequences if it were to disappear entirely.

In order to raise awareness about these issues, HAWAPI took 23 artists up to Pariacaca to do research and create artworks. The artists worked closely with the local communities and were supported by llama herders in the area. Among the artworks installed on site were sculptures, a wind powered xylophone, a temporary auditorium and radio station, three weatherproofed USB devices and a communal performance ceremony.  A group exhibition of original works based on the research and experiences of each artist on location will follow at the Lima Museum of Contemporary Art during COP20.  

Hot Future, the second art project, is a platform for collaborative art in public space that directly responds to climate change. It will comprise art interventions in public spaces and a participatory forum for debates, presentations and workshops. Hot Future is organised by La Junta, in collaboration with artists, architects, designers, scientists, strategists and policymakers.

The main aim of the event is to engage the general public with the issues at stake in the COP meetings, and build bridges of communication and dialogue. To achieve this goal there will be a public participatory forum constructed entirely with waste material. Inside the forum, a series of activities will take place to open up the public discussion about climate change, climate politics and the international negotiations. The forum will also serve as a space for exchanging innovative ideas and initiatives regarding sustainability and new models of development consistent with the limits of our environment’s capacity.

Other exhibits include a walking forest (Plantón Móvil) which links art and social change and an old bus that is transformed into a public garden and a cloudscape. For the walking forest, people from different disciplines and backgrounds have come together to walk and help create and maintain sustainable public green areas.  The cloudscape on the bus shows clouds representing a city where the COP has been hosted, each one in different shades of grey according to the air quality of the city.