Emissions of climate-damaging gases continue to rise worldwide and measures to reduce greenhouse gases are inadequate. New heat records, extreme weather events and floods seem to have become the norm. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 has de facto failed. Many countries have so far only insufficiently fulfilled their commitments to meet the targets. There is a lack of political will and concrete plans to implement the necessary changes. It is often said that environmental pollution and climate change were ignored in the past. Awareness and protest are only a contemporary phenomenon. The graphic designer, political activist, author, publisher and lawyer Klaus Staeck is someone who posed pressing political and ecological questions decades ago and continues to raise awareness of uncomfortable issues. He has repeatedly publicised his enlightening messages with posters: “A Staeck poster”, it is said, “is synonymous with militant poster art”.
Long before the urgent need for action on environmental issues was publicly discussed at the first World Climate Conference in 1979, Klaus Staeck (*1938) was committed to protecting nature. The friend and companion of Joseph Beuys has always depicted uncomfortable truths on his posters. In its new “MAK Poster Forum” format, the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna is now showing 25 posters by Klaus Staeck from 20 March to 26 May under the title “Nothing is finished!” 25 posters by Klaus Staeck on the subject of environmental pollution and climate change. The title refers to the much-quoted credo of the early environmental alarmist. Beginning with one of his first poster campaigns in 1973, the posters on display cover more than 40 years of committed graphic design in the name of environmental protection. According to the announcement, the works, which were always commissioned by the artist himself, “sometimes cynical, sometimes humorous or poetic, encourage reflection and action”. The image of an oil-smeared cormorant, photographed on the North Sea coast in 1982 (“The Oil Prince”), which looks at the viewer with astonishing imperturbability despite its death throes, appears to be as much a metaphor for vulnerable nature as for the reckless destruction of life. Images like these, it says, “evoke strong emotions and remind us that we all have a responsibility to look after our planet.” Because, as one poster from 1983 says: “The rented property must be treated with care and returned in good condition.”
With the “MAK Poster Forum”, the museum creates space for current and controversial topics as part of the “MAK Design Lab”, because hardly any other medium addresses the zeitgeist as well as social, cultural and political aspects as directly as the poster. The format follows “Proud to be pride” during Pride Month, where posters set a visible sign for acceptance and tolerance.
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