Rabat – Moroccan artist Mariame Abouzi Souali has won the 2022 edition of the Beyond Future Art Prize.
The annual prize awarded in Hong Kong accepts entries from artists who use their work to tackle issues related to the environment, sustainable living, and climate change.
The winner receives HK$25,000 ($3185) and exposure to the general public and business partners in the contemporary art industry.
Souali reported the news on Saturday. “Glad and honored to be the winner of this year’s Beyond Future Art Prize!” she wrote on Instagram.
Souali’s artistic work underlines the complexity of human societies in relation to current environmental challenges.
Her work brings together “dissimilar elements” including “childhood play memories, images from the natural and animal environment, on the one hand, and containers, cityscapes, ports or other signs of the modern life, on the other.”
Read Also: 5 Must-See Films on Climate Change
Inspired by a mix of elements, the Moroccan artist seeks to highlight the dangers of excessive exploitation of nature and its resources, as well as illustrate the human thirst for “unlimited progress.”
“A desire whose victims are humans themselves, wildlife, the earth, and the climate,” she explained.
Along with raising awareness about environmental causes, Souali opts to create narratives that would “reappropriate the present and to bring witness to the contemporary social, geopolitical and environmental global issues.”
In April, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the “disastrous” acceleration in global warming indicators that would likely double the 1.5-degree limit by 2100. Such a drastic increase in global temperatures will cause major heatwaves, storms, floods, water shortages, and the extinction of 1 million species.
In such a context, Guterres urged countries to adopt renewable energy sources, cut their greenhouse gas emissions, and shift away from fossil fuels.
