From 9 to 20 November 2026, Koen Vanmechelen presents two monumental sculptures at COP31, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Türkiye. We Thought We Were Alone and Cosmopolitan Fossil come directly from his solo exhibition at Palazzo Rota Ivancich in Venice.
Under the title Still Possible, COPArt brings together 190 Turkish and international artists in the Green Zone, the part of the conference open to the public. Their artwork makes the relationship between people and their environment visible and tangible, in the place where the world sets its course on climate.
The exhibition starts from the conviction that climate change is not only a scientific or political challenge, but also a cultural one. How we look at the world, what place we give humans within it and how we relate to nature are all shaped by culture. Art can question these assumptions, open new perspectives and broaden how we imagine a sustainable future.
The climate crisis reveals a contradiction: we depend on the life we keep trying to control. Artists can make that dependence visible. I am showing these works in Antalya because decisions about the planet begin with how we understand our place within it.
The curators selected two works by Vanmechelen. In We Thought We Were Alone, an ape stands on a mirrored sphere balanced on a human thumb. Viewers see themselves reflected, while another animal holds the highest position. In Cosmopolitan Fossil, a child struggles to hold a wild iguana. “Both sculptures question humanity’s claim to power and control over other forms of life. Now that question arrives in the place where our shared future is being negotiated,” says Vanmechelen.
On 18 November, the conference’s thematic day on Human and Social Development, Vanmechelen gives a talk in Antalya. It is not his first climate summit: in 2009 he spoke on the sidelines of COP15 in Copenhagen.
The other 38 works of We Thought We Were Alone remain on view at Palazzo Rota Ivancich in Venice until 22 November.
EXHIBITION FACTS
COP31, Green Zone, Antalya EXPO
9–20 November 2026
Lecture Koen Vanmechelen, 18 November
Free registration via cop31.tr/register-to-visit
