Sensing Interdependence, Exhibition Opening and Public Program
ACTIVISMUS, A4C – ArtsForTheCommons, Still from digital video, 4'58", 2022–2024
Sensing Interdependence: Oceans, Pluriverses, and Rights of Nature livestream
On Saturday 28 June, de Appel and Cinetol host Oceans, Pluriverses, and Rights of Nature, a one-day gathering that explores artistic experimentation and radical environmental politics. Panels feature Sylvia Kay, Carsten Pedersen and Fiona Dove (TNI), Rosa Jijón and Francesco Martone (A4C), Harpo ‘t Hart (Embassy of the North Sea) and Roberta Bosu (Antarctic Rights), engaging with ocean justice, the pluriverse, and legal rights for the more-than-human world. The programme includes a presentation by the Embassy of the North Sea on the Confluence of European Water Bodies — an initiative advocating for water ecosystems as legal and political players. The evening closes with the first test performance of the Water Bodies Orchestra together with the Smartphone Orchestra. Fresh Stalls, in collaboration with local chefs, will offer a menu featuring ingredients sourced from local regenerative farms. Amidst art, food, and performances, the program imagines collective futures beyond anthropocentrism.
This programme is in English.
LIveStream below
Part 1: Reclaiming the Ocean Commons
10.30am: Doors open
11am–12.30pm: Reclaiming the Ocean Commons
Researchers Sylvia Kay and Carsten Pedersen (TNI) in dialogue with Francesco Martone and Rosa Jijón (A4C)
Moderation: Aria Spinelli, respondent: Fiona Dove (TNI)
While oceans have been central to the expansion of the capitalist economy for centuries, ocean resources and territories have gained renewed traction in recent decades as frontiers for accelerated economic growth. Through conservation initiatives, ocean areas are increasingly turned into products that can be bought and sold — such as carbon credits. From industrial fishing and oil extraction to off-shore wind projects and deep-sea mining, the continuous appropriation of territories and resources increasingly displace small-scale fishers and local communities.
Inspired by A4C’s works on display at de Appel, TNI researchers and activists Sylvia Kay and Carsten Pedersen, and A4C’s Rosa Jijón and Francesco Martone, will share perspectives on the contribution of contemporary art in the struggles for the future of our oceans and its communities. Sylvia and Carsten will reflect on their work with grassroots movements resisting these forms of ocean and land grabbing. They will share stories of resistance and promote an alternative vision for coexisting with nature. This panel will explore how community-led efforts — rooted in local knowledge and collective rights — offer meaningful, grounded responses to the ecological and social crises we face today.
1pm: Lunch by Fresh Stalls with produce from local regenerative farmers
Part 2: Creative attempts to represent the pluriverse
2.30-4pm: Creative attempts to represent the pluriverse
Francesco Martone and Rosa Jijón (A4C), Harpo ‘t Hart (Embassy of the North Sea), and Roberta Bosu (Antarctic Rights), moderation: Aria Spinelli
Drawing on the Rights of Nature movement, speakers and discussants revisit the principle of harmonious coexistence through A4C’s artistic production, and ongoing campaigns by Embassy of the North Sea and and Antarctic Rights to recognise the rights of the North Sea and Antarctica as legal entities, thereby challenging dominant paradigms of environmental governance, while proposing a shift from anthropocentric to ecocentric legal frameworks.
Performing and reenacting legal documents that recognise the rights of nature;, imagining ecosystems as queer entities through a feminist and decolonial approach;, reframing representation as a call to imagine a future where nature has standing — not symbolically but legally, politically, and poetically. These and other topics will be explored in a dialogue between A4C, Embassy of the North Sea and Antarctic Rights, where artistic production and creative communication blend with a shared commitment to shift from anthropocentrism to a biocentric paradigm as a key answer to the current civilizational crisis.
4.30pm: Presentation of the Confluence of European Waterbodies (Christiane Bosman, Embassy of the North Sea)
Sensing Interdependence at A Piu' Voci, MAAM in Rome
Sensing Interdependence at A Piu’ Voci
MAAM - Museum of the Other and Elsewhere in Metropoliz
via Prenestina 913 Rome
Ottobre 25 and 26
English below
Arts for the Commons presenteranno il progetto Sensing Interdependence, Venerdi 25 e sabato 26 ottobre, presso il MAAM-Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz, a Roma, in occasione del passaggio di direzione da Paolo Flores d’Arcais a Cinzia Sciuto, MicroMega e il MAAM (in collaborazione con Museo delle periferie). Per il festival, daranno vita a una due giorni di festa, scandita da laboratori politici, dibattiti, performance. Nella gioranta di Venerdi, il museo sarà aperto alle visite con ingresso liberon e saranno organizzati dei tavoli di lavoro tematici: attivisti e attiviste di diverse realtà e associazioni confronteranno le loro esperienze per costruire le istanze da presentare pubblicamente - sotto forma di speech, di galleria fotografica, di performance - il giorno successivo. I portatori di istanze si riuniscono per aree tematiche e discutono, condividono e producono i contenuti da presentare pubblicamente il giorno successivo, in dialogo con la redazione di MicroMega. Dopo la tappa veneziana, Sensing Interdepence sarà presentato a Roma.
Sensing Interdependence è realizzato grazie al sostegno della Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura nell’ambito del programma Italian Council (13 edizione, 2024), finalizzato alla promozione internazionale dell’arte contemporanea italiana.
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Sensing Interdependence at A Piu’ Voci
MAAM - Museum of the Other and Elsewhere in Metropoliz
via Prenestina 913 Rome
October 25 and 26
Art for the Commons will present Sensing Interdependence at the A Piu’ Voci at MAAM - Museum of the Other and Elsewhere in Metropoliz (in collaboration with the Museum of Peripheries) in Rome on October 25 and 26. Artists, activists, and scholars will welcome the new director of Micromega Magazine, Cinzia Sciuto, succeeding Paolo Flores d'Arcais, with a two-day co-organized festival featuring political workshops, debates, and performances. MAAM will host thematic working tables while the museum is open on Friday. The next day, activists, artists, and scholars. Divided into thematic areas, each group will publicly present their political demands in a conversation with MicroMega's editorial team. After the Venetian event, Sensing Interdpence will be launched in Rome.
Sensing Interdependence is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (13th edition, 2024), which aims to promote Italian contemporary art worldwide.
Sensing Interdependence at the Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024
Sensing Interdependence - Arts For the Commons
Presentazione, Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024
English below
In qualità di mentori per un workshop di alta formazione di tre giorni intitolato Mountains Flow - Deep Ecology and Rights of Nature Campus, avviato da Italian Buddhist Union (UBI) e co-sviluppato con NICHE (Ca' Foscari University), TBA21–Academy (Ocean Space) e Global Alliance for Rights of Nature (GARN), A4C presenterà Sensing Interdependence nel contesto del Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024, un'iniziativa di TBA21–Academy, the Embassy of the North Sea and ILP Mar Menor. Il programma dell'edizione veneziana del Confluence of European Water Bodies è parte degli eventi di chiusura dell'esposizione Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania (23 marzo – 13 ottobre 2024) presso Ocean Space a Venezia. Riunisce oltre 25 comunità artistiche di base, attivisti, avvocati ed ecologi che rappresentano mari, laghi, fiumi, lagune e ghiacciai provenienti da tutta Europa. Emergendo dai numerosi corpi idrici partecipanti, è stato co-sviluppato con Embassy of the North Sea, NICHE e UBI, in fondamentale dialogo con le associazioni locali di attivisti Comitato per le Grave di Ciano (Fiume Piave) e Poveglia per Tutti (Laguna di Venezia). Confluence of European Water Bodies e realizzato grazie al supporto di Creative Industries Fund NL
Sensing Interdependence è realizzato grazie al sostegno della Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura nell’ambito del programma Italian Council (13 edizione, 2024), finalizzato alla promozione internazionale dell’arte contemporanea italiana.
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Sensing Interdependence - Arts For the Commons
Presentation, Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024
As mentors for a three-day higher education workshop Mountains Flow - Deep Ecology and Rights of Nature Campus, initiated by Italian Buddhist Union (UBI) and co-developed with NICHE (Ca' Foscari University), TBA21–Academy (Ocean Space) and Global Alliance for Rights of Nature (GARN), A4C will present Sensing Interdependence will be presented in the context of The Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024, an initiative of TBA21-Academy, the Embassy of the North Sea and ILP Mar Menor. The program of the Venetian edition of the Confluence of European Water Bodies is part of the closing events of the exhibition Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania (March 23–October 13, 2024) at Ocean Space Venice. It brings together more than 25 grassroots communities of artists, activists, lawyers, and ecologists representing seas, lakes, rivers, lagoons, and glaciers from all over Europe. Emerging from the many participating water bodies, and co-developed with NICHE (Ca' Foscari University) and Italian Buddhist Union (UBI), in fundamental dialogue with local activist associations Comitato per le Grave di Ciano (River Piave) and Poveglia per Tutti (Venice Lagoon). The Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024 is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.
Sensing Interdependence is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (13th edition, 2024), which aims to promote Italian contemporary art worldwide.
