Madrid is the home of the Prado Museum (which is already 200 years old) and COP25 Chile (COP stands for Conference of the Parties, the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -UNFCCC-), which was relocated to Madrid at the last minute due to organisational problems at the previously assigned venue.
Effectively communicating complex topics such as the climate crisis, the concepts of mitigation and adaptation, and the impact this can have on everyday life is a difficult challenge and often requires a multidisciplinary approach. The #ShowYourStripes project by climate scientist Ed Hawkins is an example of this kind of approach, graphically representing the variation of the global average temperature over the years.
The Prado Museum, in synergy with WWF Spain, wanted to celebrate COP25 with an awareness-raising campaign based on art and an interesting stratagem: modifying famous paintings and adapting them to climate change. The result is really effective, and the attention to detail in the modified canvases is truly remarkable.
The name of the campaign is +1.5º Lo Cambia Todo, i.e. above 1.5° everything changes, in reference to the maximum margin of global temperature increase that the IPCC - and others - declared in its report (Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C - October 2018), beyond which the consequences will land the planet and humanity in serious trouble.
Paintings by three Spanish artists (Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez and Joaquín Sorolla) and a Flemish Renaissance painter (Joachim Patinir) were chosen for the campaign, considered by art experts to be the most suitable for the campaign, as the Prado itself states:
For this, four masterpieces were selected to warn of rising sea levels, the extinction of species, the drama of climate refugees or the disappearance of rivers and crops due to extreme drought.
With the launch of the + 1.5 ° C Lo Cambia Todo awareness campaign, the Prado Museum and WWF are using art as a universal language to explain in a shocking and new way the damage to the Earth of rising temperatures.
This awareness-raising campaign is an original effort to shake consciences and mobilise society in the face of climate change.
Philip IV on horseback, by Velázquez - The original painting and the ‘flooded’ version
Children on the beach, by Sorolla - Original and ‘Children in the Dead Sea’ version
El quitasol, by Goya - Original and version ‘El quitasol climate refugees
Paso por la Laguna Estigia, by Patinir - Original and ‘Laguna Estigia seca’ version
