Ecovention was a term invented by Amy Lipton and Sue Spaid in 1999 to refer to an ecological art intervention in environmental degradation. The Ecovention movement in art is associated with land art, earthworks, and environmental art, and landscape architecture, but remains its own distinct category. Many ecoventions bear tendencies similar to public works projects such as sewage and waste-water treatment plants, public gardens, landfills, mines, and sustainable building projects.
Artists associated with ecovention include: Joseph Beuys, Mel Chin, Agnes Denes, Helen and Newton Harrison, Ocean Earth, Robert Smithson, Alan Sonfist, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, among others.
Exhibitions
Ecovention is also the title of a 2002 exhibition at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center in Ohio, and the title of exhibition catalog, joint published with the Greenmuseum. It was considered the definitive text on ecological art for several years and the only text available for teaching the topic at the college and University level.
Other major exhibitions apart from the CAC's "Ecovention" exhibition include: "Earth Art" (1969) at Cornell University, "Elements of Art: Earth, Air and Fire" (1971) at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, "Earthworks: Land Reclamation as Sculpture" (1979) at the Seattle Art Museum, and "Fragile Ecologies" (1992) curated by Barbara Matilsky, and a show at the Queens Museum of Art in the early 1960s.
There is a new exhibition, Ecovention Europe, planned to open in the Fall of 2016. The show is also curated by Sue Spaid, and will feature a new text furthering the conversation around what an "Ecovention" is. The show will be held at the Museum De Domijnen in Sittard, Netherlands.