Our springs are getting quieter and quieter because the birds are no longer there to sing: the challenge of Les Murs d’Audubon is to take into account the symbolic and real impact of this disappearance, through art and shared creation.

#audubonmuralproject

The Audubon Mural Project is a public art project in Harlem, United States, that paints murals of birds threatened by climate change on city walls. It is inspired by the 19th century illustrations of North American birds by French-American naturalist Jean-Jacques Audubon.

Born of a collaboration between the National Audubon Society and the Gitler Gallery, the project quickly attracted public and press attention and spread throughout New York City and many other American cities.

Continuing the movement that began in the United States, COAL is bringing the Audubon Mural Project to France in partnership with the National Audubon Society and the LPO. By calling on street artists, children and residents to create frescoes of birds in the city, the project allows for the emergence of a large, creative and committed citizen mobilization to address the erosion of biodiversity caused by climate change. A high visibility event, to reach and engage a large public on the most urgent issues of our time.

Les Murs d’Audubon aims to reach the territories and to develop everywhere in France in a plurality of places: parks and natural reserves, cities, institutions, associations and cultural places.

CONTEXT AND STAKES

SILENT SPRINGS, A MOBILIZATION THAT WANTS TO BE HEARD

Les Murs d’Audubon is part of a general and global context that is that of the sixth mass extinction, marked in particular by the disappearance of birds, a third of which have already disappeared in the last twenty years. Making visible the dramatic extinction of birds is a symbol and a unifying struggle, both politically and poetically. Birds, with their songs and colors, universally illustrate the diversity and richness of nature and an emotional relationship with living things.

THE WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS

The Audubon Walls was launched by COAL in the context of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Conservation Congress in Marseille in 2021 and VIVANT, a Cultural Season for Biodiversity by COAL, in 2020-2021. It is carried out in partnership with the National Audubon Society and the League for the Protection of Birds.

A FEW NUMBERS

1,313 bird species are threatened with extinction
in the world out of 10,000 species in total;

1/3 of the birds have already disappeared in France
over the past twenty years;

In Paris, 3 out of 4 sparrows have disappeared in 13 years.
Similarly, the Turtle Dove has lost
more than 90% of its population in the
in the Ile-de-France region.

UN
GENERAL INTEREST PROGRAM THROUGHOUT FRANCE

Beyond the participation in a collective movement on an international and national scale, the Murs d’Audubon is also, for the organizations that participate, a support and an anchor to develop a program of cultural actions and awareness on the scale of their territory.

Screenings, meetings, workshops, talks on the issue of birds, bringing together local actors (nature reserves, schools, parks, gardens, associations), workshops for young people, are set up on a local scale to mobilize and raise awareness.

This awareness and mediation program is accompanied by the implementation of concrete actions: distribution of a charter of use to local residents, development of bird nesting boxes and feeders with the Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux and local associations.

AND IN EUROPE

The European cooperation network Art Climate Transition, of which COAL is a part, has launched a campaign that deploys Audubon Walls across Europe: “Your birds, Our birds”. By spreading Audubon Walls across Europe, the network is raising awareness about the disappearance of many European bird species due to the sixth mass extinction.

Led by ACT members, the “Your Birds, Our Birds” campaign invites and enables a local community to create a mural, either through a call for projects or through an art commission.

Communities, nature conservation sites, schools, businesses, festivals, individuals, join the Audubon Walls.

If you are an artist and you wish to participate in the project in France, write to us at contact@projetcoal.fr

Les Murs d’Audubon est porté par COAL en collaboration avec des acteurs partout en France.

COAL, association créée en France en 2008 par des professionnels de l’art contemporain, de l’écologie et de la recherche, mobilise les artistes et les acteurs culturels sur les enjeux sociétaux et environnementaux et soutient le rôle incontournable de la création et de la culture dans les prises de conscience et les mises en œuvre de solutions concrètes. À travers le Prix COAL, des actions de coopérations internationales et plus d’une cinquantaine d’expositions et de projets culturels de territoire, COAL est le premier acteur français à promouvoir l’émergence
d’une nouvelle culture de l’écologie.

CONTACT
COAL
Nous contacter au sujet des Murs d’Audubon
Joan Pronnier
contact@projetcoal.fr

PRESSE
The Desk
Perrine Ibarra, Responsable pôle culture
+33 (0)1 48 87 70 77 
perrine@agencethedesk.com
111 boulevard de Sébastopol, 75002 Paris