call: The COAL PRIZE 2026 – The Night
Deadline: 28 April 2026
Call for projects
COAL PRIZE 2026 – The Night
https://downloads.nmartproject.net/COALPRIZE2026-EN.pdf
COAL Student Prize 2026
http://projetcoal.org/News-2026/AppelPrixetudiant2026.pdf
Dates & location of event context : PARIS
No Entry Fee
Intro
We oppose day and night even though they form a single living unity, traversed by opposites. For us, diurnal beings so dependent on sight, night often begins with a loss. Between dusk and dawn, it suspends time, veils the world, compels withdrawal. The certainties of day recede, uncertainty rises to the surface, and this is perhaps why it remains the time of contemplation and storytelling, where, in anticipation of the coming day, dreams and imagination awaken. Night displaces the sovereignty of the image.
But it is retreating, bleached, colonized by the boundless spread of artificial lights on land, at sea, in the sky, until the Milky Way itself is erased from our memories. Skyglow, the halo of artificial light suspended like a dome above cities, can be read from space. Outside urban centers, the multiplication of small illuminated pockets fragments the night, cuts continuities, turns corridors into dead ends, and sets lethal traps for birds, insects, and so many other species disoriented by an excess of light.
For some thirty years now, the term nocturnal environment has taken hold to name this threatened vital milieu. A majority of animals live at night. In landscapes saturated with human presence, darkness sometimes becomes the last interval in which to move without being seen, without being driven off one’s path. It opens times for migrations, mating, pollination and crossings. The recent concept of the dark ecological network perfectly expresses the urgency of thinking about night as a network of continuities of darkness to be preserved.
The people of the night live in a world of listening and olfaction, where one locates oneself through rhythms, echoes, aerosols, and wafts of scent. Night changes the grammar of the world. Even flora changes its diction. Some flowers open at night and perfume the air to attract specific pollinators.
It is also an essential time of regeneration for organisms and metabolisms, a discreet workshop where energies and balances are redistributed, where excesses are repaired. The nocturnal drop in temperatures contributes to cooling soils and the atmosphere and supports water cycles. Artificially prolonged daytime weakens these functions. The exhaustion of the world also stems from the drift toward continuous operation, twenty-four hours a day, which denies alternation and consumes bodies and environments alike. Darkness and rest are, nonetheless, vital necessities.
To borrow Édouard Glissant’s expression, night calls for a right to opacity, recognizing the importance of being able to elude the imperatives of transparency and visibility. In politics, night signifies both vigilance and eclipse. A place of welcome for resistance and marginality, it is the chosen time of those who hold on when day closes nights of assemblies and vigils. Nuit Debout offered a clear image of this. But conversely, it can also designate the dark times of totalitarian powers. This is the paradox of night: it emancipates when it shifts the social clock to open a common space; it oppresses when it obscures thought.
The COAL Prize 2026
invites artists to defend the night as a common good, a major ecological issue for the regeneration of life, a refuge, a diversity of languages to be celebrated, a right to rest and to darkness. Inventing stories to relearn how to inhabit the shadows, creating art with the night, is to contribute to an ecology of rhythms. Restoring the fear of the night is a perfect antidote to anthropocentrism, because it forces us to be humble, confronting us with the depths of the sky, the intimacy of the vast, the immensity of the cosmos.
We contrast day and night, even though they form a single unit of life permeated by opposites. For us diurnal beings, so dependent on sight, night often begins with a loss.
Between dusk and dawn, the night suspends time, veils the world, forces us to retreat. The certainties of the day recede, uncertainty surfaces, and perhaps that is why night remains a time for contemplation and storytelling, when dreams and imagination arise as we await the coming day.
Night shifts the sovereignty of the image.
But night is receding, bleached white, colonized by the limitless spread of artificial lights on land, at sea, and in the sky, to the point of erasing the Milky Way from our memories. Skyglow, a halo of artificial light suspended like a dome above cities, can be seen from space. Outside urban centers, the proliferation of small pockets of light fragments
the night, cuts off continuity, transforms corridors into dead ends, and sets deadly traps for birds, insects, and so many other species disoriented by the excess of light.
The term ‘night-time environment’ has been used for the past thirty years or so to describe this vital but threatened habitat. Most animals are nocturnal. In landscapes
dominated by human presence, darkness is sometimes the only time to move around undetected and undisturbed.
This period allows for migration, mating, pollination and crossing. The recent concept of the ‘dark infrastructure’
perfectly encapsulates the idea that we must preserve the continuity of darkness at night.
The people of the night inhabit a world of sound and scent, where one navigates by rhythm, echo, aerosol and aroma. Night changes the grammar of the world. Even the flora changes its language. Some flowers open at night, perfuming the air to attract particular pollinators. It is also an essential time for the regeneration of organisms and metabolism, a subtle process in which energies and balances are redistributed and excesses are repaired. The drop in temperatures at night contributes to cooling the soil and atmosphere, thereby promoting water cycles.
Artificially prolonged daylight weakens these functions. The exhaustion of the world is also due to the shift towards round-the-clock operation, which denies cycles and exhausts bodies and environments. Yet darkness and rest are vital necessities.
To borrow Édouard Glissant’s expression, night calls for a right to opacity, which recognizes the importance of being able to escape the imperatives of transparency and visibility. In politics, night signifies both vigilance and eclipse. A refuge for resistance and marginality, it is the time chosen by those who hold on when day closes in, nights of assemblies and vigils –
Nuit Debout is a clear example of this. But it can also refer to the dark times of totalitarian powers. This is the paradox of the night: it emancipates when it shifts the social clock to open up a common space, and it oppresses when it obscures thought.
The COAL Prize 2026
invites artists to defend the night as a common good and a major ecological issue for the regeneration of life. It is a refuge and a celebration of diversity and languages, as well as a right to rest and darkness. By inventing stories that help us to relearn how to inhabit the shadows and by creating art with the night, we can contribute to an ecology of rhythms. Reconnecting with our fear of the night is the perfect antidote to anthropocentrism because it humbles us by confronting us with the vastness of the sky and the immensity of the cosmos.
Created in 2010 by the COAL association, the COAL Prize is a vehicle for identifying, promoting, and disseminating artists who, throughout the world, bear witness to, imagine, and experiment with solutions for transforming territories, lifestyles, organization, and production. Together, these artists help to make changes visible and build a new collective narrative, a shared heritage in development, and a positive and necessary framework for everyone to find the means and inspiration to implement changes towards a more sustainable and just world.
More into and entry form
https://projetcoal.org/en/prize/coal-prize/call-for-projects-2026/
