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. The glossary will be made available as a digital open-source platform.
– 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
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.
Work sessions with local and international events:
– Digital presentations with leading experts
– Public conferences and activation with participatory programs
– Public program and research, both digital and analog
1.Zurich Art Weekend, Kick-Off River Landscapes, June 2024
2.Biennale Art Safiental, Switzerland, October 2024
3.Student research unit “Chair of the Anthropocene” at UZH, Switzerland, April 2025
4.Conference at Science Gallery Bengaluru, Bangalore, India, February 2025
