Jan Eric Visser

 Environmental Responsibility

Jan Eric Visser is a member of Gallery Climate Coalition.

The world is facing a series of linked environmental crises. In October 2022, the UN warned that the world’s governments are not yet on track to keep global warming below 1,5 degrees. The window for action is rapidly closing. We are already seeing the impacts of existing warming with devastating droughts, storms and floods across the world. Related crises include collapsing biodiversity, dangerous levels of air pollution, plastic contamination and depletion of earth’s resources. Without urgent action from across society, these problems will rapidly escalate. 

The art world has an important role to play. Particularly in the Global North the art world has a large impact on the environment, due to a great deal of international travel, arts shipping, high energy use and waste of materials. In line with what science tell us the art world/we need to act to reduce our impacts. Moreover, we have the opportunity to use our public platform and cultural influence to help shifting the public debate. 

As an artist I have been transforming my personal inorganic household waste into autonomous sculpture for over 35 years, thus reducing my personal and artistic footprint. My works are based on a new proposition to create art without the use of virgin materials. Thus, I avoid the mining and transport of valuable resources which is highly polluting in terms of CO2 emissions. The same goes for the production and distribution of new materials and products. Also, valuable resources do not go to waste by incineration, but are preserved for future generations.

Unfortunately, my artistic practice also has some direct environmental impacts such as art shipping, energy use in my studio and car travel. I’m committed to tackling these issues by: 

- Joining Gallery Climate Coalition to reduce carbon emissions from a 2021 base line. Thus, I’m supported to monitor and calculate the carbon footprint of operations so that I can track progress.

- Continue to refuse international shipping by air.

- Use low or zero emissions vehicles for local transport by 2030.

- Find opportunities for renewable energy generation for my studio by 2030.

- Continue zero-waste operations and communicate about it.