An exhibition by the NOOR Foundation and Slovak Press Photo with work by:

Jana Hunterová, Tomek Stabinski, Diana Takacsova, Zsolt Balázs, Rafal Siderski, András Zoltai, Judit Ruprech, Tomáš Hrivňák, Kinga Wrona, Tomáš Predajňa, Márton Kállai.

The Climate Crisis is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. A delicate balance has been tipped over, unleashing a series of chain consequences the scale of which we are yet to grasp. As we witness the intensification of the crisis, we must come to terms with the fact that the complexity of the matter underscores a very simple fact: change is the only way forward. Acceptance, adaptation and mitigation are our only chances to thrive in an uncertain future.

For aeons humans have relied on storytelling as a way to share knowledge, overcome the unknown and pass on wisdom from one generation to the next. Being a carrier of collective memory, storytelling holds the very key to the future. We believe that images hold immense power, capable of creating impact like no other communication tool. Visual storytellers hold the potential to make a critical difference in our understanding of the climate crisis, functioning as a bridge between complex science, political strategies, economic interests and citizens.

For these reasons the Kingdom of The Netherlands, NOOR Foundation, the Slovak Press Photo Foundation, the Czech Photo, PAP.pl, and the Herald Europe joined forces to create a dedicated space wherein authors from Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) could come together to work, share and learn from one another.

Guided by award winning visual storytellers Kadir van Lohuizen (The Netherlands) and Esther Horvath (Hungary), the eleven authors worked on stories close to their home in Europe, where we often are unable to see as mainstream media feeds us news from faraway places, so distant from us that the magnitude of the catastrophes become mere abstract notions. Reality however, paints a very different picture: the climate crisis is here, right at our front door, and with it entire ecosystems mutate, migrate, go extinct and the chain of life they support changes irrevocably, often driven to the brink of collapse.

The authors take us on a journey of discovery: from the restoration of the wetlands of the Danube, one of the richest ecosystems in Europe, to the forests of Czech Republic, ravaged by bark beetles in recent years due to lack of rain and elevated temperatures, compelling us to reflect on the importance of healthy forests. We examine the consequences of the most intense drought in more than a hundred years in Hungary, while learning the stories of the scientists whose experiments help us understand how climate change affects our lives, amongst many other untold stories. The wide-ranging narrative threads of this exhibition are woven together into a tapestry of human experiences curated for us to see, to learn from and to act on.

If we are to stand a chance, we are to realise that the magnitude of this unprecedented crisis requires us to come together and act now. We hereby share with you eleven stories, eleven seeds of change, and invite you to water these seeds, to share, care and grow together into something larger and more powerful than the sum of us.

The exhibition is organised with the support of the Embassies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

The exhibition was organized thanks to the financial support of the Visegrad Fund.