0:00:13.520,0:00:15.890 Can you imagine the Renaissance 0:00:16.560,0:00:20.830 without Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo? 0:00:21.960,0:00:27.310 We are living today a transformation[br]of society, of civilization, 0:00:28.060,0:00:30.260 a third Industrial Revolution, 0:00:31.360,0:00:32.949 of Anthropocene, 0:00:32.949,0:00:35.610 of a transition to the Post-Carbon era... 0:00:36.210,0:00:38.920 But where is the artistic movement? 0:00:39.870,0:00:41.430 Where are the artists 0:00:41.890,0:00:46.219 who follow this second Renaissance? 0:00:47.639,0:00:49.630 Every period, every such transformation, 0:00:49.630,0:00:51.780 has been preceded, followed 0:00:52.500,0:00:54.640 by artistic movements: 0:00:55.630,0:00:58.249 Impressionism, the Pre-Raphaelites, 0:00:58.869,0:01:02.889 Dada who was born with WWI. 0:01:03.779,0:01:06.719 These are the questions I asked myself 0:01:06.719,0:01:08.880 at the turn of the century. 0:01:08.880,0:01:11.459 I was working at the French State Bank 0:01:11.500,0:01:16.310 launching an innovative center[br]dedicated to sustainable development. 0:01:17.350,0:01:20.249 And everywhere I would read[br]the term "stakeholders", 0:01:20.249,0:01:25.279 stakeholders who represent civil society 0:01:26.999,0:01:30.209 and who, if we listen to them, 0:01:30.209,0:01:33.749 permit to understand social[br]and environmental issues. 0:01:34.619,0:01:37.760 And I was very surprised,[br]among these stakeholders, 0:01:38.600,0:01:43.729 to find only NGOs, sometimes labor unions. 0:01:44.289,0:01:48.560 I was surprised not to find[br]artists among these stakeholders. 0:01:49.460,0:01:54.719 Are not artists precisely[br]the representatives of civil society? 0:01:56.689,0:01:59.169 They are beholden to no one 0:01:59.169,0:02:01.230 rather, they act in the general interest. 0:02:04.000,0:02:06.100 They impart visions and values. 0:02:06.100,0:02:08.729 They are often catalysts of new paradigms. 0:02:09.899,0:02:11.810 And I realized that in this realm 0:02:11.810,0:02:14.630 of sustainable development[br]and the environment, 0:02:14.630,0:02:16.940 there was very little talk[br]about art and culture. 0:02:16.940,0:02:19.010 Sometimes contemporary art [br]was even considered 0:02:19.010,0:02:23.350 as a new extension of capitalism 0:02:23.350,0:02:25.810 and vice versa, in the art world, 0:02:25.810,0:02:28.280 there was little talk[br]of environmental concerns. 0:02:28.280,0:02:31.210 A phenomenon as important[br]as climate change 0:02:31.210,0:02:33.020 wasn't much present 0:02:33.020,0:02:35.690 and sustainable development[br]tended to be perceived 0:02:35.690,0:02:37.920 as an oxymoron, 0:02:39.060,0:02:42.140 and ecology as an area [br]of political activism, 0:02:43.670,0:02:46.190 or even as an old hippy trip. 0:02:46.190,0:02:50.400 And it's true that the driftwood[br]sculptures of the 70's 0:02:50.400,0:02:53.550 were the subject of scorn in New York. 0:02:55.050,0:02:58.060 So there was a gap 0:02:58.545,0:03:00.825 and I told myself[br]that something had to be done. 0:03:00.840,0:03:05.120 I organized the first[br]international symposium, 0:03:05.120,0:03:07.340 with the artist as a stakeholder. 0:03:08.050,0:03:09.750 In that view, with UNESCO, 0:03:10.310,0:03:12.750 we conducted the first search 0:03:12.750,0:03:15.310 for artists working on themes 0:03:15.590,0:03:17.310 related to sustainable development 0:03:17.310,0:03:19.230 with a focus on the environment, 0:03:19.230,0:03:21.790 essentially visual artists. 0:03:21.790,0:03:24.410 And now you are going to see images 0:03:25.440,0:03:29.700 that will show you the wealth[br]of discoveries we have made, 0:03:29.710,0:03:31.940 from then until today. 0:03:34.450,0:03:37.570 Behind these images, you have artists 0:03:37.570,0:03:42.200 who are much less attached[br]to the notion of creating art in isolation 0:03:42.200,0:03:44.980 rather than acting, being on the field, 0:03:44.980,0:03:48.230 in collaboration with stakeholders, 0:03:48.230,0:03:52.040 other players, being in the transition, 0:03:52.940,0:03:56.060 and you have artists[br]who convey this future world, 0:03:57.040,0:04:00.059 with sometimes extremely original ideas. 0:04:01.449,0:04:07.140 To resurrect seeds from the Viking Age, 0:04:07.140,0:04:10.880 saying that precisely[br]they will be the feeding solutions 0:04:10.880,0:04:12.919 to adapt to global warming. 0:04:13.239,0:04:19.440 Or to also invent recipes to eat insects, 0:04:19.440,0:04:23.689 another solution for adapting[br]to climate change. 0:04:23.689,0:04:27.780 To buy permits to pollute,[br]to create solar lights, 0:04:27.780,0:04:30.939 imagine new ways of moving, 0:04:32.150,0:04:35.320 adopt a square meter[br]of the Amazon rain forest, 0:04:35.320,0:04:39.420 extremely original and abundant ideas 0:04:39.440,0:04:41.749 which are the proof 0:04:41.749,0:04:44.349 that artists are into innovation, 0:04:44.349,0:04:47.450 into solutions, [br]much more than into condemnation. 0:04:48.160,0:04:49.610 The next step 0:04:49.610,0:04:51.920 was to start an association 0:04:51.920,0:04:55.790 with a landscaper, a curator 0:04:55.790,0:04:57.040 and a philosopher, 0:04:58.590,0:05:01.330 who then organized for several years 0:05:01.330,0:05:05.010 a prize dedicated to contemporary art [br]and the environment. 0:05:05.010,0:05:07.280 We organized exhibitions, 0:05:07.280,0:05:09.220 and we have, again, 0:05:09.220,0:05:12.640 found a lot of solutions, artists, 0:05:13.430,0:05:16.730 and we managed an extra step 0:05:17.230,0:05:21.150 in a dialogue that was extremely nascent 0:05:21.150,0:05:24.840 between the world of sustainability 0:05:24.840,0:05:26.470 and contemporary art. 0:05:28.450,0:05:32.290 And during those six years[br]we spent doing that, 0:05:32.290,0:05:35.550 other revolutions appeared. 0:05:35.550,0:05:39.270 And in 2014, they threw me off balance. 0:05:39.270,0:05:43.870 There had been the rise[br]of the social and solidarity economy, 0:05:43.870,0:05:49.550 and the figure of the social entrepreneur,[br]who is in social transformation, too, 0:05:49.580,0:05:51.680 seemed to me extremely powerful. 0:05:51.840,0:05:53.520 In the meantime, 0:05:53.520,0:05:58.230 there has been the creation of movements[br]by young people in the whole world 0:05:58.230,0:06:01.270 who really were a lot more innovative 0:06:01.270,0:06:04.610 than what the traditional NGOs 0:06:04.610,0:06:06.960 to mobilize on the subject. 0:06:06.960,0:06:10.610 For example, the Climates association[br]which created COP in MyCity, 0:06:10.610,0:06:13.690 where everyone performs a role play 0:06:13.690,0:06:16.980 in which they take[br]the place of a negotiator 0:06:16.980,0:06:19.950 and simulate climate conferences. 0:06:20.070,0:06:23.520 There was also the collaborative economy, 0:06:23.520,0:06:27.280 peer-to-peer, open data,[br]a lot of movements 0:06:27.280,0:06:31.780 which showed that there was[br]a transformation going on. 0:06:32.510,0:06:36.910 But social entrepreneurs, artists[br]and these young innovators 0:06:37.440,0:06:40.130 worked very independently. 0:06:40.350,0:06:42.300 They did not know each other. 0:06:42.840,0:06:45.950 Sustainable development[br]means acting together; 0:06:46.750,0:06:49.710 so I had the idea[br]to create their meeting. 0:06:50.700,0:06:53.360 And I founded Art of Change 21, 0:06:53.360,0:06:56.140 the art of change of the 21st century, 0:06:57.960,0:07:01.820 21 like COP 21, which was on its way. 0:07:01.820,0:07:03.950 When I launched this initiative, 0:07:03.950,0:07:06.280 France was about to host this great event. 0:07:06.930,0:07:11.140 And like the 21 actors[br]that I went to look for, 0:07:11.140,0:07:13.400 to discover around the world, 0:07:14.170,0:07:16.470 young people, entrepreneurs, artists 0:07:16.470,0:07:19.000 to bring them together in this project. 0:07:20.100,0:07:22.410 From Brazil to China 0:07:22.410,0:07:27.350 through the United States,[br]Bahrain, New Zealand, Kenya. 0:07:28.380,0:07:31.790 I invited 21 of those actors to Paris, 0:07:32.560,0:07:36.020 in an event called the Conclave. 0:07:36.870,0:07:39.670 They were locked up for two days 0:07:40.640,0:07:43.280 and they played the game, 0:07:43.280,0:07:45.420 not to be in a competition, 0:07:45.420,0:07:49.920 not to highlight their own projects, 0:07:49.920,0:07:54.760 not to chose the best project among theirs, 0:07:56.300,0:08:02.780 but to exchange and imagine together,[br]as a result of their collaboration, 0:08:03.070,0:08:04.540 ideas for actions. 0:08:05.130,0:08:09.700 What sustainable development[br]brings to creation is co-creation. 0:08:10.100,0:08:13.630 Four ideas emerged from this exchange, 0:08:15.730,0:08:20.780 and the great artist Olafur Eliasson,[br]whose images you have seen 0:08:22.800,0:08:26.660 in this small panorama[br]that I just showed you, 0:08:26.660,0:08:29.420 agreed to be the patron of this initiative 0:08:29.420,0:08:34.419 together with social entrepreneur[br]Tristan Lecomte. 0:08:36.010,0:08:37.549 So among these four actions, 0:08:38.249,0:08:42.328 I want to talk to you[br]about one of them, Maskbook. 0:08:42.919,0:08:46.769 Maskbook, you see behind you, 0:08:46.769,0:08:50.190 by a Chinese artist named Wen Fang. 0:08:50.860,0:08:54.840 She was just telling us[br]about her life in Beijing 0:08:54.840,0:08:57.880 where she has to wear[br]an anti-pollution mask. 0:08:58.600,0:09:02.510 She said, "In China,[br]we do not have Facebook. 0:09:03.070,0:09:05.009 Anyway, 0:09:05.009,0:09:07.669 since we all wear anti-pollution masks, 0:09:07.669,0:09:10.199 it should be called Maskbook." 0:09:10.199,0:09:12.419 And we had the idea to turn around 0:09:12.419,0:09:15.809 the anxiety inducing image[br]of this anti-pollution mask 0:09:15.809,0:09:18.660 and make it an expressive[br]medium for everyone: 0:09:19.680,0:09:22.679 such masks could be created 0:09:22.679,0:09:28.600 using each and every one's[br]creative talents, with recycling, DIY, 0:09:28.600,0:09:30.899 we also mobilized makers, 0:09:30.899,0:09:33.699 we did it on 3D printers, in 3D scan. 0:09:34.519,0:09:36.449 We also invented, 0:09:36.449,0:09:39.889 from a means as small as a mask, 0:09:40.619,0:09:46.670 a way to communicate solutions[br]conveyed by each and every one. 0:09:46.950,0:09:50.899 We launched this project[br]for the Paris Climate Conference, 0:09:51.919,0:09:55.460 we collected thousands of masks, 0:09:55.460,0:09:59.859 we had an exhibition in Beijing,[br]in Paris at the Grand Palais, 0:10:00.939,0:10:03.910 we organized dozens of workshops 0:10:03.910,0:10:07.770 to precisely introduce[br]to the [circular] economy 0:10:07.770,0:10:09.639 the different ways we have, 0:10:09.639,0:10:11.489 using this tiny bit of material, 0:10:11.489,0:10:14.179 of fabric or whatever else, 0:10:14.179,0:10:19.990 to do something and to act[br]on the pollution-climate change link, 0:10:20.279,0:10:22.199 which concerns us all: 0:10:22.199,0:10:24.479 global warming will accelerate 0:10:25.309,0:10:27.919 the effect of pollution in our health. 0:10:29.079,0:10:34.469 This is the example of action[br]that comes from this interaction, 0:10:35.119,0:10:38.719 that does not question whether[br]it is a work of art or not, 0:10:38.719,0:10:40.589 which is addressed to all, 0:10:40.589,0:10:45.609 and, of course, I invite you all[br]to create your portrait on Maskbook. 0:10:45.909,0:10:47.859 But we will not stop there. 0:10:47.859,0:10:49.999 I will not just ask you 0:10:50.799,0:10:55.120 to take part[br]in an initiative like Maskbook, 0:10:55.120,0:10:57.749 via workshops or a mobile application 0:10:57.749,0:11:01.139 that we will launch with the United[br]Nations at the end of the month. 0:11:01.419,0:11:04.000 I want to ask you more, 0:11:04.815,0:11:05.815 Why? 0:11:06.280,0:11:08.990 Some of us have already heard[br]over a thousand times 0:11:08.990,0:11:10.990 Gandhi's words, 0:11:12.070,0:11:15.600 "Be yourself the change[br]you want to see in the world." 0:11:16.000,0:11:19.810 I personally prefer that of the artist[br]Joseph Beuys, who said, 0:11:20.560,0:11:22.690 "Each man is an artist." 0:11:22.690,0:11:26.340 Today our creativity is at stake. 0:11:26.340,0:11:27.840 If we do not change, 0:11:27.840,0:11:31.710 if we do not invent a world[br]different from ours, 0:11:33.000,0:11:34.980 it will become unliveable. 0:11:34.980,0:11:38.890 What is at stake is our ability[br]to create a new world, 0:11:39.540,0:11:44.100 with new ways to eat, to move, 0:11:45.080,0:11:47.880 to rethink our hobbies, our work, 0:11:49.130,0:11:53.000 and for that,[br]your creativity is essential. 0:11:53.930,0:11:58.090 All together, using our creativity, 0:11:58.100,0:12:00.700 adding it to our neighbour’s, 0:12:01.200,0:12:05.130 we can create a universal creativity 0:12:05.130,0:12:07.980 that would allow us[br]to succeed in this challenge 0:12:08.630,0:12:11.120 of necessary change, 0:12:11.120,0:12:14.140 to become ourselves actors of change, 0:12:14.970,0:12:18.580 in order to avoid the foretold collapses, 0:12:18.970,0:12:23.950 which are our conditions[br]of living and well-being on Earth. 0:12:26.110,0:12:31.620 And at this crucial moment,[br]when everyone's creativity is at stake, 0:12:32.420,0:12:36.460 artists are our allies, [br]they are our torchbearers. 0:12:37.610,0:12:39.940 If we connect to them, 0:12:40.500,0:12:44.910 we will be touched by their ingenuity 0:12:45.950,0:12:48.890 they will pass on their "virus" to us 0:12:48.890,0:12:50.460 to change the world. 0:12:50.950,0:12:53.560 If we connect to their imagination, 0:12:53.560,0:12:56.880 they will tell us[br]that nothing is impossible. 0:12:57.730,0:13:01.290 Artists are our best chance. 0:13:03.240,0:13:04.629 Thank you. 0:13:04.629,0:13:09.483 (Applause)