Arca Futuris
is the name of a ship: a historic barge, about 30 metres long, 6 metres wide, and with a displacement of up to 360 tonnes. Today it no longer transports goods, but ideas.
»Arca Futuris« is more than just this one ship.
It is a place, beyond places; an artistic contribution to a debate of importance to society as a whole.
How can issues of the future be negotiated together?
How can abstract global issues be made tangible?
How can each and every individual be empowered to participate?
All our lives will look different in the near future. But how?
Central questions about the future
Scientists are attempting to approach them in complex and abstract simulations (Kreienkamp et al., n.d., Brasseur et al., 2017, IMPACT2C team, 2013a). With the art project »Arca Futuris«, these questions can be experienced physically, spatially and emotionally.
»Arca Futuris« is an ark from the future, a floating artistic laboratory.
Here, time can be turned forward together to experiment for the climate of the future. »Arca Futuris« was initiated in 2022 by artist Claudius Schulze and has been implementing artistic projects afloat on the ship and in a wider context along European waterways ever since.
»Arca Futuris« is not a traditional venue.
It rather focuses on creation, development and change. This is because the positive impact of art arises not from the results but from the unique processes, developments and methods. This is what makes the workshops and the exhibitions of »Arca Futuris« unique.
Artistic research is the particular methodology that furthers »Arca Futuris’« identity. It combines intuition, creativity and critical thinking to open up new perspectives on complex social, cultural and technological issues.
It is cultural education that unfolds the transformative power of art: through cultural education, art can create awareness, effect change and overcome divides.
»Arca Futuris« is convinced that the water and its flows is the starting point for all change to come. It fosters art on the water, about the water, and with water. As a ship, this is obvious and natural.
»Arca Futuris« is a call for a different kind of dialogue about the climate crisis: more intense, holistic, and far-sighted – but also more creative and truly cooperative in terms of concrete solutions.
Claudius Schulze
Artist, Founder of »Arca Futuris«
To foster a collective understanding of the planetary crisis, different voices and perspectives must be brought together.
This creates an impulse for a more just and livable future. With art at its core, science, politics and society merge.
What has »Arca Futuris« achieved?
Foundation 2022
In the summer of 2022, the »Barge 19407« in the port of Hamburg was converted into the ‘»Arca Futuris« and created as an artistic laboratory. This meant that the ship became a commons.
ClimateArtFe.st 2022
In this time, which is fundamentally shaped by anthropogenic environmental damage, climate change, species extinction and advancing technologization, ways to share knowledge and experience together are necessary. With the new, international and cross-disciplinary art festival “Climate Art Fest”, a place for this was created.
Klimaströme 2023
KLIMASTRÖME is an art and research festival by, with and for children, which took place for the first time from 17 to 22 July 2023 in Entenwerder. For six days, the festival and its visitors took a closer look at the Elbe – the lifeline on our doorstep – from the microscopic life in a drop of water to man-made climate change that threatens the river as a habitat.
Hamburg Architecture Summer 2023
The Hamburg Architecture Summer has been held every three to four years since 1994 and is a fixture in Hamburg’s cultural life. It is a platform for a variety of events in different formats on architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, urban development and engineering, involving all artistic disciplines.
S+T+ARTS 4 Water II 2024-25
Bringing together art, technology and science, S+T+ARTS4WaterII – Ports in Transformation is dedicated to tackling the complex environmental and societal challenges present in Europe’s ports and port cities.
