Every day for the last two weeks, Johannes-Harm Hovinga has sat at a raised table in Museum Arnhem, using a two-hole page puncher to systematically perforate the 7,705-page sixth assessment report produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
He has printed it out on coloured paper and the result is a vibrant heap piling up at the artist’s feet.
Hovinga remains completely silent during each performance in the Netherlands-based museum. He drinks water, but doesn’t eat, with bathroom breaks his only intermission.
“We are at a crucial turning point in history,” says Hovinga, “where the consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly evident. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and microplastics are just some examples of what our planet faces.”
The artist calls his living piece The Elephant in the Room. It is an artistic protest, meant to illustrate the lack of urgency by policymakers and global leaders. Hovinga believes in the power of creative expression to help raise awareness and persuade people to take a stand.
I can’t make sense of this, how does hole punching the report help anyone? Is the point to demonstrate how big it is by showing how long it’d take to file?
I think the point is to demonstrate how uselessly bureaucratic the reaction to climate change has been from the world’s leaders. Plus a giant waste of resources without any meaningful action.
Printing out 8000 page reports that no one will read and flying private jets to eco summits hosted by petrol countries demonstrates that no one who can do something, wants to do anything.
An art does not need to be useful like a painting on a wall does not need to serve a purpose other than being a painting. This particular art performance is intended to send a message about the climate disaster that we’re heading into. I’m sure in the museum there will be an adequate explanation either from the tour guide or some plate.