As world leaders gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, an international art programme is inviting them to see the climate crisis from a different perspective. COPArt, supported by Turkcell, brings together art, sustainability and climate awareness, with artists from around the world sharing their experiences of environmental change and their hopes for the future. The programme explores whether creativity can make the climate crisis feel closer to home and show that meaningful change is still possible.
Bringing art into the climate conversation
Directed and curated by Nagihan Ozel, COPArt sees artists examine topics ranging from climate change and biodiversity to environmental justice and sustainability. It is running at COP31 from November 9 to 20, with artworks scattered around the conference site instead of being confined to a single exhibition space.
The exhibition is called Hâlâ Mümkün – or 'Still Possible' in English – reflecting its ambition to highlight the damage caused by the climate crisis while insisting that the future is not yet decided. The aim is to help people understand why the decisions being taken at COP31 are so important and to recognise that change is still possible.
Art throughout the conference
The centrepiece of Hâlâ Mümkün is an 8,100-square-metre indoor exhibition space. Spanning painting, sculpture, photography, video, digital art and immersive installations, it connects Türkiye's cultural heritage with contemporary international art.
Across both the official conference area and the public-facing Green Zone, 57 outdoor installations and a programme of 50 talks and panel discussions are bringing art beyond the gallery into the daily life of the summit. Through digital and multisensory installations, visitors will be able to connect with environmental transformations taking place far beyond the host city of Antalya.
From a vanishing forest to a river restored
A centrepiece of the exhibition is Anselm Kiefer's Für Rabbi Löw, in which a set of scales evokes the balance between humanity's power to create and its responsibility for what it brings into being. In Eva Jospin's Forêt, cardboard – a by-product of trees – is used to craft a sculpture of a forest, highlighting a stark truth: while nature can be recreated in art, lost ecosystems are far harder to restore.
Another woodland-inspired artwork, Clarissa Tossin's Death by Heat Wave, preserves a silicone cast of a maple tree that died from rising temperatures and a lack of moisture in a forest in Mulhouse, France. In Zaria Forman's digital recording, an Ode to An Iceberg, viewers are taken on a 360-degree journey around a melting iceberg in Whale Bay, Antarctica.
Yet COPArt's story is not only one of loss. One exhibit, Carolina Caycedo's Elwha Healing, follows the Elwha River in Washington State. After decades of campaigning by local indigenous people, the removal of two dams allowed the river to flow freely again – paving the way for salmon and other wildlife to return. Documented by the artist through satellite imagery, the river's recovery is a real-world expression of the 'Still Possible' theme and proof of how collective action can help bring natural systems back to life.
Six artists who shaped Türkiye's modern art
COPArt also draws on Türkiye's art history to explore contemporary environmental issues. Under the title Six Masters, Six Legacies, six solo exhibitions introduce artists who have shaped modern Turkish art: Fahrelnissa Zeid, Burhan Doğançay, Ömer Uluç, Devrim Erbil, Mehmet Güleryüz and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu. A broader selection of works by other artists, from Ottoman painter Osman Hamdi Bey to modern sculptor İlhan Koman, treats the preservation of cultural memory as another form of sustainability.
By bringing culture into the world of international climate conferences, the first edition of COPArt aims to offer a new model that future COPs can build on. The hope is for the questions raised by the artists to influence discussions about science, culture and international cooperation. From Kiefer's scales to Caycedo's river flowing freely once again, the programme seeks to show the climate crisis is not just about what we have already lost, but also about what we choose to protect, what we are willing to change, and what – together – we can still achieve.
