This summer, Swiss-French artist Julian Charrière will transform Basel’s historical department store Globus, currently under renovation, with his innovative project “Calls for Action.” This artwork aims to connect visitors across vast distances, linking the mountainous regions of Switzerland and a Western Andean Cloud Forest in Ecuador. The intervention in public space invites Basel’s citizens and visitors to become active participants and protectors of this vital ecosystem. The project emphasizes the importance of environmental stewardship and aims to raise awareness about the critical role of rainforests as carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots.
“Calls for Action” is part of the “Globus Public Art Project,” a collaboration between the Fondation Beyeler and Globus during the three-year renovation of the department store on Basel’s market square. Each year, an artist is invited to conceive and realize a site-specific work of art that engages with the building and the public. Julian Charrière’s project stands out by integrating public art with land conservation, connecting his practice with environmental activism. This initiative is curated by Samuel Leuenberger and aims to create a meaningful dialogue between art and the public.
The centerpiece of “Calls for Action” is a large screen suspended on the façade of the department store, displaying a live feed from a Western Andean Cloud Forest in Ecuador. This real-time window into the rich biodiversity of an endangered ecoregion serves to highlight the interconnectivity of our planet and the environmental issues that threaten such vital ecosystems. The installation encourages communication and interaction, featuring a phone booth on the market square where visitors can listen to and speak with the distant ecosystem, proposing an encounter beyond mere spectatorship.
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Julian Charrière’s project goes beyond creating an emotional link to a specific region; it also aims to facilitate direct donations for conservation efforts. The targeted cloud forest in Ecuador is a biodiversity hotspot, one of 36 sites worldwide that host at least 1,500 species of vascular plants found nowhere else on Earth. However, this region has already lost 70% of its primary vegetation. By involving the public in fundraising through a QR code within the phone booth, “Calls for Action” promotes active participation in protecting this critical ecosystem.
The conservation efforts of “Calls for Action” are supported by Art into Acres, a non-profit environmental initiative run by artists; Re:wild, a global organization backing environmental causes worldwide; and the Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco, an Ecuadorian NGO dedicated to protecting areas crucial for the conservation of threatened species. This collaboration underscores the importance of collective action in addressing environmental challenges. The installation, powered by an environmentally minded solar panel system, symbolizes a renewed closeness to the life and vibrancy that inhabit these ecosystems.
Inherent in the project is the idea that art can be used for connecting with environmental issues beyond our immediate surroundings. Julian Charrière aims to create new planetary bonds by showing how our actions affect even the most remote places. “Calls for Action” reminds us that everything is interconnected and that our presence is felt globally. By speaking into the rainforest and hearing our voices within it, we are reminded of our role in the larger ecological system. Charrière’s project is both a playful and critical intervention, emphasizing that with intentional action and collective voices, we can support and restore ecosystems that might otherwise be lost.
