Conversations with the Spree
Rope, Deko-Batist natural fabric, recycled wood
Rivers have a subtle quality of communicating with us: through lights, colors, sounds and movements of water. Through them, we reflect, remember and act. However, when we begin to consider the future of rivers, these points of connection are often guided by logics of human-driven engineering and technology and the perspectives of waterways are ignored. We want to venture an experiment: this participatory installation seeks to create spaces for conversations and collaborations with the Spree. Visitors can leave audio, written and drawn messages to the Spree - to gather empathy with the Spree as a non-human actor and better see her as an active stakeholder in the negotiation process for our future…
This participatory installation was created within a collaboration of set designers, anthropologists and science communicators. Three stations cover topics of the everyday, the challenges and the imaginaries for the futures of the Spree. Fabrics, ropes and wood create an atmosphere that emphasizes the subtle voice of the river and invites people to speak with it. All materials also reflect the life around the Spree: the traditional dresses of the Spreewald region in the fabrics, the ropes on the trees mirroring boats held on docks and the wooden games of Slavic communities traced into the interactive character of the installation. Approachable tools, like drawing, writing and recordings, gather the impressions of the visitors and their relationship to the water.
Project Gallery
Camila Ivana Vargas Pardo
Camila is a Colombian artist whose work seeks to establish genuine connections between people through space. She has focused on using the tools of design and performance to create narratives relevant to specific social contexts. She has experience both on and off the stage and has worked in spaces oriented towards diversity, such as the Ramba Zamba Theater, the Gay Museum, and the Mobile Academy in Berlin. Her journey includes co-creation, community engagement, and interdisciplinary knowledge shared through artistic platforms. She enjoys exploring the hobbies of others and has been living in Berlin since 2021.
Omar Sherif
Omar Sherif is an interdisciplinary set designer and art director who combines his knowledge of architecture, set design and spatial design to create stunning environments and design harmonious user experiences. Omar has always been passionate about creating spaces and art to convey ideas and statements, and to live out freedom in design to touch the unspeakable
Desirée Hetzel
Desirèe is an Environmental Anthropologist and her work focuses on human-environment relations and incorporates current and future imaginaries for the Berlin-Brandenburg water landscape. She is part of the research consortium CliWaC (Climate and Water under Change), which focuses on water-related challenges in the region (more information go to cliwac.de). Desirée Hetzel does ethnographic research in the Spreewald and talks to local resident about their views on water and the environment.
Also featuring Zora Ritz, Patricia Usée & Pauline Münch