Which future will you leave me?
Girls on the climate crisis

An exhibition project

Meral Akkent

This exhibition was prepared within the framework of the project Which future will you leave me? Girls on the climate crisis. Documenting what has happened is very important, especially in the context of women. Undocumented past tends to be forgotten, changed and rejected. Therefore, it is important to document and make public words and actions of climate activist girls as an element of the history of childhood in Turkey today.

Just as countless peers all over the world, in Turkey climate activist girls are drawing attention to the destruction of the ecosystem and the climate crisis. In intensive communication with their peers around the world they raise their voice for climate justice and demand that effective precautions be taken. They lead a global struggle against a global crisis. They grow the seed that Greta Thunberg has sown.

This promising movement has now been documented by Istanbul Women's Museum in cooperation with Fridays for Future activist girls from various regions of Turkey¹, with kids, kindergarten teachers and parents of Koşan Kaplumbağa Anaokulu (Running Turtle Kindergarten) ² and young artists of Ammonite Digital Art Gallery ³, thus -- at the same time -- being a document of the history of girlhood in Turkey.

The project Which future will you leave me? Girls on the climate crisis comprises four separate actions with a common title and common content, but with different terms of dissemination and use⁴. It includes a physical exhibition, a virtual exhibition, a book and a billboard action. All four actions are presented to the public on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl, on October, 11th, 2020.

All activities of the project are based on 28 messages from 28 climate activists. With their own methods and tools every component of the project demonstrates how girls envision their future in a world whose ecosystem is destroyed, about how they feel affected by anxietes connected with climate change, about what demands they make on themselves and others in the fight against the climate crisis and which hopes they have.

The book of the project is made available free of charge - in print and as a digital version - to climate activists in Turkey and those who want to support them. The virtual exhibition will welcome its visitors 24/7 at istanbulkadinmuzesi.org/whichfuturewillyouleaveme. The physical exhibition was hosted by Schneidertempel Art Center from November, 9th through November, 25th 2020. This exhibition features original works created by Ammonite Digital Art Gallery for the project Which future will you leave me? Girls on the climate crisis. Apart from this, the messages of the climate activist girls were communicated to the public on more than 100 billboards and 100 banners in Istanbul's streets as well as on screens in public transport between 9-25 October.

Messages by Fridays for Future activists

The twenty-eight texts by Fridays for Future activists contain messages such as:

• fear (Climate crisis scares us all.);
• sadness and guilt (I feel guilty when I have spent the day without doing anything against the climate crisis. I cannot sleep.);
• pessimism (We must face the risk of not having any future if the climate crisis continues at the present rate.);
• decision (In all fields we want to influence decisions and make our own contribution. Just as now, with our activities against the climate crisis.);
• confidence (Change starts with us.);
• community-orientation (Nobody should remain unaware of the climate crisis!);
• criticism (Adults! It is you who are before all responsible for the climate crisis.);
• demands (Decision makers! Start practices against the climate crisis!);
• kindness (We are grateful for the support that adults have given us in our struggle.);
• concrete suggestions (Rethink your food choices, eat less meat and more greens.);
• hope (Everything we do together or individually is a contribution to change.);
• calls for justice (We want a sustainable and just world.).

The activists' messages are collected in five sections, whose headings reflect the main concerns of the Fridays for Future groups in Turkey:

• Which future will you leave me?
• I have a responsibility
• I defend my opinion
• The climate movement is a movement for rights
• Activism is a unifying force

In these sections you will find - alongside the activists' messages - supplementary information about the issues that the activists draw attention to in their messages, statistics, surveys and hints to videos linking daily life and the environmental crisis.

The visions and demands expressed in the messages of the climate activists are of decisive importance for future policies. They bear a clear resemblance to the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development of the United Nations. To emphasize this close connection, the 17 Goals were added to the respective messages together with additional information and food for thought. All additional documents in the book highlight the global injustice existing between those who are -- because of the climate crisis -- forced to live in the most difficult conditions already now and those who still have superior privileges.

Apart from the activists' messages and the additional information this project contains three short articles by Akgün İlhan, Rana Göksu and Hande Aydın presenting the theoretical background of the project. They deal with the devastating effects of the climate crisis on the lives of girls and women, the relationship between feminist ecology and the destruction of the ecosystem and the constitutional rights of nature.

In her article entitled Climate change, women and a just future Akgün İlhan illustrates why women are before all affected by the negative effects of climate change. While stating the problems, she does not neglect the struggles for a solution. İlhan feeds her hope for a fair future on the strong reason that the new generation of activists will "by combining the strength of being both a woman and young" prove to everyone "that there is no unstoppable disaster and no unrealizable dream."

How will we reshape law compatibly with nature? is the question to which Rana Göksu is seeking answers and this is also the title of her article. Göksu examines the goals of countries that recognize the rights of nature in their constitutions and how these rights are implemented.

She emphasizes the need for a new understanding of the relationship between law and the rights of nature.

In Ecological violence and feminism Hande Aydın describes the relationship between feminist women's movements and environmental advocacy movements and points out the role of ecofeminism in the fight against global climate change. Aydın demands that the issue of gender equality and environmental issues should be included on the economic and political agendas of society together, because both gender equality and environmental problems are a public health issue.

Artworks illustrating the messages of Fridays for Future activists

In the book and in the virtual exhibition you will find reproductions of art works by young artists of Ammonite Digital Art Gallery and drawings of the kids of Running Turtle Kindergarten (Koşan Kaplumbağa Anaokulu).

The texts of the Fridays for Future activists inspired the young artists of Ammonite Digital Art Gallery to create works of art. Each artist selected one out of the 28 texts, thought about what the message meant to him or her, visualized and retold the text by interpreting it with a technique of his or her choice. As a result of the empathy between the artist and the climate activist's message, 28 original works emerged, and this opened up an artistic debate on the activists' demands for climate justice in the face of environmental degradation and the climate crisis.

The question of what the messages of climate activist girls mean to younger children was answered by working with the little ones at Koşan Kaplumbağa Kindergarten. After listening to the texts the kids were first given the opportunity to express their feelings by drawing pictures. Then they were asked what they wanted to express with the drawings they had produced. Drawings and comments show that children of kindergarten age are in close contact with nature and are not indifferent to the destruction of natural life.

Billboard action

The Billboard action, carrying the messages of the climate activists into public space, was designed as a summary of the project Which future will you leave me? Girls on the climate crisis for audiences assumed to be out of reach of the physical or virtual exhibitions, the book and related cultural events. The short messages of the Friday for Future girl activists voicing climate emergency were displayed on billboards in all districts of Istanbul between October 9-25.⁵ Impressive billboard designs containing the messages of climate activist girls, the works of Ammonite group artists, drawings and interpretations of the children of the Koşan Kaplumbağa Kindergarten caught the eyes of people of all ages in the street.

In conclusion: Contributing to the happiness and well-being of the planet

Apart from documenting the Fridays for Future activities of girls the project Which future will you leave me? Girls on the climate crisis can be seen in still a different perspective. The exhibition project shows that Istanbul Women's Museum is in line with the new, inclusive concept proposed by the Standing Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in its declaration "Museum Definition, Prospects and Potentials" (MDPP).

According to the Standing Committee's declaration museums are "democratizing, integrating and polyphonic spaces [...] for a critical dialogue about the past and the future". They "see and learn about today's conflicts and problems, [...] work for human dignity and social justice, global equality [...], aiming to contribute to [...] the happiness and well-being of the planet."⁶

For Istanbul Women's Museum sharing the principles of this definition it was an important and enjoyable obligation of top priority to exhibit the messages and demands of climate activist girls, because climate activists believe and demand that fighting the climate crisis will only be realized through climate policies that reduce all kinds of inequalities whether economic or related to ethnic origin or gender.

The project Which future will you leave me? Girls on the climate crisis is a multi-layered project and it could not have been realized without the enthusiastic, creative and result-oriented support of the volunteers and friends of Istanbul Women's Museum, Fridays for Future Turkey activists, the Ammonite Digital Art Gallery team, the kids, educators and parents of Koşan Kaplumbağa Anaokulu.

Meral Akkent

Curator

Istanbul Women's Museum, October 2020