Warming Up On Tour Kick off

Florentijn Hofman dreams about the nitrogen monster on the heath next to his house, Henry van Loon fills his basement to the brim with pasta just to be on the safe side, and Nhung Dam already has wet socks in her living room. It’s bubbling, hissing and fizzing in our back garden.

Globally, 89% of the population wants to see more climate action from their governments, according to research by the UN Development Programme. Within the scientific community, more than 97% of academics share the consensus that the climate is changing and that this is caused by humans. Yet we often feel alone. What we need are new climate stories in a language that stimulates our ears and makes our bodies tingle to the tips of our toes. That is exactly where scientists and creative makers need to join forces: combining their strengths as storytellers. For Warming Up on Tour, five artists and five researchers are joining forces to present the Climate Story of the Netherlands in meteorological hip hop, visual geology and data-driven cabaret. During this kick-off, we will introduce the five duos to you and explore the landscape between art and science and their joint role in times of climate crisis.

This performance is part of the Warming Up Festival. View the entire programme here.

About Warming Up On Tour

Around the time of the international climate summit (COP) in November 2025, climate will be in the spotlight in every province with “Warming Up on Tour”. The working group matches an artist with a scientist. They then work together to make a local climate story tangible and relatable and present it in a local cultural centre. All these climate stories together form The (Climate) Story of the Netherlands.

In the Warming Up on Tour project, the KIN Art Working Group is investigating how art can contribute to the transition to a climate-proof society. Warming Up on Tour is a research project with a concrete outcome, in which different ways of collaboration between scientists and artists are explored, monitored and reflected upon. The idea for the tour came from the KIN Pact working group Art and Science, which was awarded the KIN Pact Network Grant in the first round last year. The working group is developing the concept, the method and the formation of the duos.

About Warming Up

We Are Warming Up. Just like the rest of the world. But what does that mean? And what can we do about it? We Are Warming Up presents and produces art and media projects around the climate issue. Because the cultural sector brings people together and knows better than anyone how to touch the public’s heart with music, stories and images. We Are Warming Up is an initiative of Stichting Impact Makers and Tolhuistuin. Since 2020, we have been organising the Warming Up Festival every autumn. Warming Up On Tour is a spin off of the festival and is developed by Impact Makers together with RADIUS, Centrum voor hedendaagse Kunst en Ecologie, Foundation We Are and the University of Applied Science Rotterdam.