Mermaid, art & environment program

Presentation

Today, a scientific consensus has been established on the environmental emergency and the necessity of involving every societal actor to tackle this issue.

The Mermaid, Art and Environment program was therefore born from the alliance of an artistic institution, the Malandain Ballet Biarritz with two environmental institutions, the Cristina Enea Foundation Donostia / San Sebastián and the Environmental Education Service of the city of Pamplona-Iruña.

Concerned about our impact and wishing to reach a large audience, we therefore chose the ocean as a cause because we live in a coastal region. In this respect, we witness all the pollution induced by the massive use of disposable plastics in our daily life which has very harmful consequences on the environment: pollution of rivers and seas, formation of immense islands of plastics in the oceans, loss of biodiversity and ecosystems ...

We hope to gain quick public acceptance of our program for the following reasons:

our region of establishment has a special relationship with the ocean which is historical, social, cultural and economic.
we target young people because they are more open-minded and more receptive to the necessary changes and are, in essence, promising for the future.
each partner in the project is recognized for its expertise in raising public awareness in its field
we are convinced that we can strongly impact consciences thanks to the emotions generated by art. With art, we inspire awareness surrounding environmental issues.

In this context, we have designed a pioneering and innovative educational program based on the artistic vision of the choreographer Martin Harriague which he expresses in his ballet entitled Sirènes. This ballet tackles head-on the challenges of ocean pollution by plastic waste while developing a personal and poetic artistic vision.

Based on this choreographic work, this program aims to make cycle 4 students aware of the impact of plastic waste on marine ecosystems.