unimaginable: clarion calls from rising seas

janine armin met zigmunds lapsa & yashaswini raghunandan, leanne betasamosake simpson met sammy chien of chimerik 似不像 & ansley simpson, dorothy blokland, joy brandsma, carlo de gaetano, femke dekker, mikki stelder, en müge yılmaz met travis geertruida, janis rafa, carlos irijalba & jun zhang

19 april 2024 - 25 april 2024

Bradwolff Projects and ‘Climate Imaginaries at Sea’* cordially invite you to the exhibition ‘Unimaginable: Clarion Calls from Rising Seas’ at Bradwolff Projects. Against the dynamic backdrop of a week-long artistic celebration at various locations in central Amsterdam from April 19 to 26, this exhibition unfolds amidst a series of engaging workshops, presentations, and lectures. Three distinctive artistic research groups embark on an exploratory journey into potential water-interwoven futures, employing a range of artistic and participatory research techniques.

The artist-researchers and their partners are addressing, among others, the following questions:
* How can artists establish connections with indigenous and global Southern climate knowledge from multiple cultural perspectives, where the consequences of rising sea levels are already a reality?
* How can we understand the impact of rising sea levels in relation to housing, clothing, and soil through material artistic research?
* How can visions of interspecies relationships help us deal with rising sea levels differently, and view them as more than merely a threat?

This exhibition resonates with the sentiments of writer Amitav Ghosh, who asserts that “the climate crisis is also a crisis of imagination.” It demonstrates that imagination plays an essential role in envisioning the future of climate change. It is an indispensable tool for embracing change in our personal lives, our environment, and the political landscape.

Three collaborating research groups support the project: ‘Material Inquiry’ at Art & Spatial Praxis at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy , ‘global South perspectives’ at the Research Group of the Academy for Theatre and Dance at the Amsterdam University of the Arts, and ‘Interspecies Imaginaries’ at the Visual Methodologies Collective at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. The research groups work in partnership with ARIAS, a platform for artistic research in Amsterdam, and a network of partners including Tolhuistuin, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, and CoECI – Centre for Expertise in Creative Innovation.

Link to the project website: Climate imaginaires at sea website.