We warmly invite you to two international roundtables accompanying the exhibition Wild Waters: In Search of Balance: on 7 October at 18:00 at Atrium ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana and on 6 October at 18:00 at the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts (KGLU) in Slovenj Gradec (>>).

HYDROCOMMONS / HIDROSKUPNOST
A Roundtable on Art, Science, Water and New Ways of Sensing the Environment
Wednesday, 7 October, at 18:00, Atrium Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Atrij ZRC SAZU), Ljubljana

The roundtable explores how changes in water are sensed, studied and understood. It considers the disappearance, scarcity, excess and pollution of water, from retreating glaciers and changing river systems to urban water challenges and transformations of aquatic ecosystems.

Bringing art and science into conversation with local knowledge, data, archives, the discussion asks what becomes visible when different ways of knowing meet. What can measurements and data tell us? What do local experiences and memories reveal? And what might we learn from sounds, traces and behaviors of other living beings?One of the points of departure for the discussion is the group exhibition Divje Vode (Wild Waters)* at the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts in Slovenj Gradec. Through diverse artistic approaches, the exhibition examines water’s ecological, social and cultural dimensions and the changing relationships between humans and their environments. The roundtable will move from this local context towards wider questions about how we perceive, document and respond to changes in water.Koroška provides a concrete setting for questions that reach beyond the region. What happens when water disappears, becomes abundant or is polluted.? And how do different forms of knowledge shape the ways in which we perceive, document and respond to these changes?

Drawing on the concept of hydrocommons by Astrida Neimanis, the round table invites us to think water as part of the relationship that connects bodies, places and ecosystems..

*One of the exhibited projects; Robertina Šebjanič’s Shadows Above My Window_Mislinja 238 km², explores the river as a dynamic ecological system through listening, hydroacoustic research, environmental data, archival materials and local knowledge, connecting environmental processes with human and more-than-human narratives.

Participants:
Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, Climatologist and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (Slovenia)
Petra Linhartová, Digital Program Director TBA21–Academy,  (Austria)
Petra Čeh, Director of KGLU and curator of Wild Waters exhibition (Slovenia)
Michal Kučerák, Ars Biologica, curator of independent study program ABIS (Czech republic)
Laura Welzenbach, Head of Ars Electronica Export (Austria)
Leonardo Delmonte,  Executive Director Wunderkammer Consortium, (Italy)
Miha Pavšek, researcher at Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), Anton Melik Geographical Institute, (Slovenia)

Moderators:
Robertina Šebjanič, artist-researcher (Slovenia)
Sabina Oroshi, curator, Muzej-Museo Lapidarium (Croatia)

The roundtable will be held in English.

Organisers: On Rizom Institute, KGLU, ZRC SAZU
Financial support: City of Ljubljana, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia

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The exhibition Wild Waters – In Search of Balance highlights the complex and often contradictory nature of water, which embodies both an unstoppable force and a source of harmony. As a fundamental natural resource, water is not unlimited; above all, it is a common good that also raises questions of social and economic justice.

The exhibition features 24 artists from Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and Australia:  Mandy Barker, Robert Černelč, Katja Felle, Jošt Franko, Gustav Gnamuš, Miha Godec, Zsófia Szonja Illés, Tomo Jeseničnik, Petra Kapš, Staš Kleindienst, Aleksij Kobal, Lena Kocutar, Anka Krašna, Jure Markota, Zoran Ogrinc, Pepo Pichler, Plateauresidue, Marjetica Potrč, Natalija R. Črnčec, Tjaša Rener, Eva Sajovic, Michaela Skovranova, Robertina Šebjanič, Nataša Tajnik Stupar.

On view at KGLU in Slovenj Gradec until 3 December.  >>

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THOUGHTS FROM THE EXHIBITION … 

“Unlike social systems, which humans are so inclined to analyse and categorise, almost nothing in nature exists in isolation. Everything is interconnected within an uninterrupted web of relationships, where every change reverberates throughout the whole – just like water, which through its circulation connects all forms of life.”

“2023 remains a year remembered in Koroška and across Slovenia for the devastating floods, the consequences of which are still visible in some places. At the same time, extreme weather events continue to occur year after year in many parts of the world, and it seems that concern for the local environment is becoming increasingly global in significance – a shared responsibility that is also a responsibility towards future generations.”

— Petra Čeh, curator of the exhibition Wild Waters: In Search of Balance

“Within the project Shadows Above My Window_Mislinja 238 km² – Hydro/Terra/Atmo_Sphere(s), I am interested in the river as a living system that is not separate from the forest, the atmosphere, animals, people, and their memories. Listening therefore also became a way of getting to know the place. Alongside hydroacoustic recordings, ecological data, and other research methods, it was local knowledge, stories, and collective fieldwork that enabled me to begin understanding the Mislinja as a place carrying many layers of memory and change.

I am deeply grateful to the entire team for all these shared journeys, conversations, acts of listening, and discoveries. Without these encounters, my understanding of the Mislinja would have been much more incomplete.”

— Robertina Šebjanič, participating artist

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