A few degrees more

The tension between "art vs. climate" recently became the focus of a global debate. Fueled by the consequences of the climate crisis, activists sparked discussion with shaking actions. Although scientists have been warning for years that the global climate will rise by an average of 1.5 to 2 degrees by 2050, these abstract figures don't sound bad to many people at first. But they have serious implications.

To illustrate the problem in a memorable way, we cooperated with researchers from the Climate Change Centre Austria - one of the leading institutions in the field of climate research in Austria - to calculate the effects of global warming on the nature depicted in the paintings of renowned artists at the Leopold Museum: How, for example, sea levels rise or biodiversity decreases.

According to current calculations by scientists and climate experts, this means that the natural landscapes immortalized in the paintings of artists such as Gustave Courbet, Tina Blau, Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser and Egon Schiele more than a hundred years ago could soon disappear in their familiar form.

To this end, world-famous landscape paintings in the collection have been tilted by precisely the degree by which the temperature in the areas shown, such as the Attersee region, the foothills of the Alps or the Atlantic coast, could rise if far-reaching countermeasures are not taken in time.

In order to offer not only awareness, but also sustainable added value, we provided users with detailed facts about the effects of climate change on an interactive website, which could be accessed via a QR code next to the paintings, and they learned how they could take action themselves. On the museum's social channels, scientists used selected works to jointly explain the consequences of climate change.

The museum turned its world-class artworks into informative "climate warning signs", reaching thousands of visitors during the campaign period and giving the climate issue a comprehensive forum for a more in-depth discussion in the digital space.