River Landscapes

River Landscapes – A new glossary 

The project “River Landscapes” tackles the capitalistic language used to describe rivers by creating a new, decolonised glossary that grasps them as more-than-human water landscapes. The project will initiate a series of locally anchored and hybrid dialogues between the core team and invited river experts from the sciences, the arts and indigenous contexts from Europe and South Asia, accompanied by a public facing program.

From spring until autumn 2025, a workshop series takes place, in which artists and scientists guide local participants on a journey to explore Swiss rivers als ecological and cultural landscapes. Through sound, movement, expression, and storytelling, participants take a closer look at rivers and their stories from new perspectives. They will then co-create glossary entries based on fieldwork and collective reflection, weaving together artistic, scientific, and local knowledge. The glossary—published as an open-source format—includes language, images, sounds, and stories that reimagine rivers not as controllable resources, but as vibrant, more-than-human ecosystems. The project will culminate in a public presentation series on a boat along the Limmat in 2026.

Ashfika Rahman Behula. These Days, 2023. Unique Cotton fabric with golden silk thread, 56 x 46 x 1 cm

Project Idea

For centuries, rivers have been central to our human understanding of landscapes, labor, myths, and art. Yet, in today’s world, they are often regarded merely as resources to be exploited and engineered. Our transdisciplinary project “River Landscapes: A New Glossary” acknowledges that the language we use to describe rivers defines this exploitative relationship and is shaped by colonial and capitalist agendas. In dialogue with river experts from science, art, and indigenous contexts, we are creating a new glossary aimed at transforming our perceptions and interactions with rivers, recognizing them as landscapes of many species and cultures.

As an innovative tool rooted in the arts, this glossary imagines new relationships between humans and non-humans and manifests in a series of interactive exhibitions, an online open-source website, a publication, and locally embedded educational programs. Switzerland is central to this project as a hub of innovative research and as a focal point from which the glossary can be developed as a globally applicable prototype. Through three chapters, the glossary will explore the relationships between river landscapes in Switzerland, South Asia, South America, and Northern Europe.

Our project hopes to blur divisions between the empirical certainty of science, indigenous wisdom from oral cultures, as well as artistic research and practice, by drawing new bridges between these disciplines. As our project looks at the use of language, it is not a site-specific project, yet our glossary will draw from research on specific rivers and landscapes. Our research will be informed by 3 main locations and their corresponding auxiliary sites and ecosystems, while drawing in further regional examples across Europe and South Asia respective to where our work sessions take place.

Interdisciplinary Discussion at Zurich Art Weekend 2024 with Ashfika Rahman, Margarida Mendes, Bernd Scherer, and Martina Huber

Project Partners

– WE ARE AIA I Awareness in Art, Zurich, Martina Huber, Founder and Curator and Mira Hirtz, Curator and Artist

-Toxic Links, not-for-profit organization, New-Delhi, Ravi Agarwal, Founder

-Chair of the Anthropocene, University of Zurich, Switzerland, Prof. Dr. Debjani Bhattacharyya

-The Citizens Archive of Pakistan, Noor Ahmed

-ILEA – The Institute for Land and Environmental Art, Johannes Hedinger

-Science Gallery, Bengaluru (SGB), India, Jahnavi Phalkey, director of Science Gallery, Bengaluru

Prameya Art Foundation, India, Anushka Rajendran, Curator