Melting glaciers, flooded cities, people on the move: images of catastrophic futures shape how we imagine the world in times of climate crisis. For activists from Fridays for Future and other climate movements, such visions of the future can become a driving force for protest. Yet the visual language of the climate movement is far more multifaceted, as the exhibition “Climate No Future?” reveals. From today, it is permanently accessible online as a digital exhibition at climatenofuture.de.
The exhibition brings together 34 photographs taken by members of the climate movements Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, and the Last Generation. Together with quotes from the activists, the images document the fears, hopes, and demands of a generation whose future is increasingly threatened by the planetary crisis. Across five thematic chapters – Violence, Loss / Extinction, Fear, Hope and Care, and (Lack of) Agency – the exhibition explores how activists make the climate crisis visible, deliberately breaking with its established aesthetics.
The exhibition is part of the research project Security Imaginaries of Climate Movements (SECIMA), funded by the University of Groningen and the University of Hamburg and led by Dr Delf Rothe (IFSH) and Dr David Shim (University of Groningen). SECIMA pursued new methodological approaches by involving climate activists as 'citizen scientists' in the collection and analysis of visual data. This gave rise to new perspectives on the climate movement and the images of the future that motivate it.
Previously, “Climate No Future” was on display in May 2024 at Galerie Lichtzone in Groningen and, most recently, from September to October 2025 as part of the group exhibition “Macht” at the Kunstklinik Hamburg-Eppendorf. The digital exhibition now makes the photographs accessible regardless of location and on a permanent basis. It is a collaboration between the IFSH, the University of Groningen, and NonFiction Photo (NL).
