News
Exhibition, Vernissage, Public Event | Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne (KBCB)
«Waterscape Imaginaries»
Vernissage: TH 16 October, 5.30 pm
Exhibition: 17.10. – 7.12.2025
Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne (KBCB)
Public Program & Workbook Launch: Saturday 29 November 2025
The exhibition „Waterscape Imaginaries“ explores microbial aquatic life through the lens of an art–science collaboration between visual artist Riikka Tauriainen and marine biologist Marta Musso. In dialogue with the Plankton Ecosystems project and selected works from the Glicksman Collection of environmental art from the 1970s, the exhibition traces connections between past and present visions of ecological art.
The show brings together videos, soundscapes, drawings and mappings, collected from field trips between the Alps, the rivers and the Sea, alongside blueprints of the historical artworks such as the Survival Pieces and Portable Fish Farm. These resonances invite reflection on the shifting imaginaries of water, relationality, and ecological entanglement.
The exhibition is organised by EcoArtLab, HKB (BFH), in collaborationwith Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne, ETH Zurich, European Research Institute and Kunstmuseum St.Gallen. With the support of Pro Helvetia Synergies.
We would also like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the program, which will take place as part of the exhibition on Saturday, 29 November:
«Public Event»
Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne (KBCB)
Public Program & Workbook Launch: Saturday 29 November 2025
Public Workshop (EN/DE)
14:00 – 16:00
“Plankton Studio: Observing the Unseen”
With Riikka Tauriainen & Marta Musso
This transdisciplinary workshop invites participants to explore plankton through artistic and scientific lenses. Led by visual artist Riikka Tauriainen and marine biologist Marta Musso, the workshop offers hands-on activities and reflections on microbial aquatic life, ocean literacy, and ecological entanglement. Families and anyone interested in plankton and art–science dialogue are warmly welcome.
Registration: until 24 November via this LINK
Where: Library, 1st floor
Costs: Free of charge
Access: Recommended for families with children aged 6 and over. Held in spoken English with optional translation to basic German. Wheelchair-accessible space with adjustable lighting. During the workshop, we will engage in visual activities using microscopes and drawing materials, and reflect on ecological issues. We hope to facilitate interactive exchange formats. Most of the work will be done at tables.
Public program with Study Group on Relational Ecologies (EN)
16:00 – 17:30 (Foyer)
“Taste library- eat the city!”
With Seraina Grupp
This edible installation invites you to map the city through taste. Artist Seraina Grupp shares the story of her hometown, from her childhood garden to today’s pavement gaps. Collectively, we will explore recipes, memories, and tastes of Biel, guided by research into stories and taste profiles that silently disappear in a mega-industrial food system.
17:30 – 19:30 (Screening at Filmpodium Biel/Bienne)
“ On Extraction, Relations and Care:
Knowledge Production in Artistic–Scientific Processes”
With Andrea Bordoli, Celestina Widmer, Jinat Hossain, Marta Musso, Nicolle Bussien and Riikka Tauriainen
This afternoon, the Study Group on Relational Ecologies will present a screening of four short films, followed by a collective discussion. The programme will reflect on how different approaches to knowledge production influence artistic-scientific work and explore practices of care, collaboration and shared methodologies.
The Study Group emerged from an interest in relational ecologies and the need for sustained, intimate formats of exchange, offering a space where research is shaped through mutual learning and imagination. The group brings together researchers and practitioners focusing on visual anthropology, feminist political ecology, ecofeminist activism, marine science and art.
A workbook developed within a collaborative project on 'Plankton Ecosystems' will also be launched at the event. This documents artistic-scientific processes and invites further engagement.
«Waterscape Imaginaries»
Vernissage: TH 16 October, 5.30 pm
Exhibition: 17.10. – 7.12.2025
Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne (KBCB)
Public Program & Workbook Launch: Saturday 29 November 2025
The exhibition „Waterscape Imaginaries“ explores microbial aquatic life through the lens of an art–science collaboration between visual artist Riikka Tauriainen and marine biologist Marta Musso. In dialogue with the Plankton Ecosystems project and selected works from the Glicksman Collection of environmental art from the 1970s, the exhibition traces connections between past and present visions of ecological art.
The show brings together videos, soundscapes, drawings and mappings, collected from field trips between the Alps, the rivers and the Sea, alongside blueprints of the historical artworks such as the Survival Pieces and Portable Fish Farm. These resonances invite reflection on the shifting imaginaries of water, relationality, and ecological entanglement.
The exhibition is organised by EcoArtLab, HKB (BFH), in collaborationwith Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne, ETH Zurich, European Research Institute and Kunstmuseum St.Gallen. With the support of Pro Helvetia Synergies.
We would also like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the program, which will take place as part of the exhibition on Saturday, 29 November:
«Public Event»
Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne (KBCB)
Public Program & Workbook Launch: Saturday 29 November 2025
Public Workshop (EN/DE)
14:00 – 16:00
“Plankton Studio: Observing the Unseen”
With Riikka Tauriainen & Marta Musso
This transdisciplinary workshop invites participants to explore plankton through artistic and scientific lenses. Led by visual artist Riikka Tauriainen and marine biologist Marta Musso, the workshop offers hands-on activities and reflections on microbial aquatic life, ocean literacy, and ecological entanglement. Families and anyone interested in plankton and art–science dialogue are warmly welcome.
Registration: until 24 November via this LINK
Where: Library, 1st floor
Costs: Free of charge
Access: Recommended for families with children aged 6 and over. Held in spoken English with optional translation to basic German. Wheelchair-accessible space with adjustable lighting. During the workshop, we will engage in visual activities using microscopes and drawing materials, and reflect on ecological issues. We hope to facilitate interactive exchange formats. Most of the work will be done at tables.
Public program with Study Group on Relational Ecologies (EN)
16:00 – 17:30 (Foyer)
“Taste library- eat the city!”
With Seraina Grupp
This edible installation invites you to map the city through taste. Artist Seraina Grupp shares the story of her hometown, from her childhood garden to today’s pavement gaps. Collectively, we will explore recipes, memories, and tastes of Biel, guided by research into stories and taste profiles that silently disappear in a mega-industrial food system.
17:30 – 19:30 (Screening at Filmpodium Biel/Bienne)
“ On Extraction, Relations and Care:
Knowledge Production in Artistic–Scientific Processes”
With Andrea Bordoli, Celestina Widmer, Jinat Hossain, Marta Musso, Nicolle Bussien and Riikka Tauriainen
This afternoon, the Study Group on Relational Ecologies will present a screening of four short films, followed by a collective discussion. The programme will reflect on how different approaches to knowledge production influence artistic-scientific work and explore practices of care, collaboration and shared methodologies.
The Study Group emerged from an interest in relational ecologies and the need for sustained, intimate formats of exchange, offering a space where research is shaped through mutual learning and imagination. The group brings together researchers and practitioners focusing on visual anthropology, feminist political ecology, ecofeminist activism, marine science and art.
A workbook developed within a collaborative project on 'Plankton Ecosystems' will also be launched at the event. This documents artistic-scientific processes and invites further engagement.
Public Lecture, SINTA | ICS
«Ethics, Politics, and Epistemology of Care»
When?
Mon, 1 December 25
19.15–20.45 CEST
via Zoom
Registration
To receive the Zoom link,
please register by email:
Hannah Ambuehl
Johanna Paschen, PhD of the EcoArtLab, is co-organising the public lecture on «Ethics, Politics, and Epistemology of Care», with Prof. Dr. Vrinda Dalmiya.
This lecture traces how feminist care ethics—rooted in the recognition of shared bodily fragility—must be expanded to include what can be called epistemic vulnerability: the openness to being cognitively undone. Care, understood as an in-time embodied practice, unfolds under conditions of uncertainty, producing an ‘emergent normativity’—an ‘ought’ that is shaped through ethical encounter and cannot be prescribed in advance. This challenges conventional belief desire models of action, inviting alternative accounts of the rationality of acts of care. A theory of knowing built on such caring practice, decenters th quest for certainty and embraces not-knowing in various ways. Could such epistemological shifts loop back to re-theorize fundamental care-concepts beyond their Eurocentric articulations? How might an epistemology reimagined in this way, open up new horizons for thinking, making, and being together in more-than-human worlds?
Vrinda Dalmiya is a professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Hawai`i, Mānoa. She has been a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in India. Her research interests are in analytic feminist theory with a focus on care ethics, feminist epistemology, environment and gender, and comparative philosophy. She is the author of several articles in these areas, the author of the monograph, Caring to Know: Comparative Care Ethics, Feminist Epistemology, and the Mahābhārata (2016), and co-editor of Exploring Agency in the Mahābhārata: Ethical and Political Dimensions of Dharma (2018).
«Ethics, Politics, and Epistemology of Care»
When?
Mon, 1 December 25
19.15–20.45 CEST
via Zoom
Registration
To receive the Zoom link,
please register by email:
Hannah Ambuehl
Johanna Paschen, PhD of the EcoArtLab, is co-organising the public lecture on «Ethics, Politics, and Epistemology of Care», with Prof. Dr. Vrinda Dalmiya.
This lecture traces how feminist care ethics—rooted in the recognition of shared bodily fragility—must be expanded to include what can be called epistemic vulnerability: the openness to being cognitively undone. Care, understood as an in-time embodied practice, unfolds under conditions of uncertainty, producing an ‘emergent normativity’—an ‘ought’ that is shaped through ethical encounter and cannot be prescribed in advance. This challenges conventional belief desire models of action, inviting alternative accounts of the rationality of acts of care. A theory of knowing built on such caring practice, decenters th quest for certainty and embraces not-knowing in various ways. Could such epistemological shifts loop back to re-theorize fundamental care-concepts beyond their Eurocentric articulations? How might an epistemology reimagined in this way, open up new horizons for thinking, making, and being together in more-than-human worlds?
Vrinda Dalmiya is a professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Hawai`i, Mānoa. She has been a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in India. Her research interests are in analytic feminist theory with a focus on care ethics, feminist epistemology, environment and gender, and comparative philosophy. She is the author of several articles in these areas, the author of the monograph, Caring to Know: Comparative Care Ethics, Feminist Epistemology, and the Mahābhārata (2016), and co-editor of Exploring Agency in the Mahābhārata: Ethical and Political Dimensions of Dharma (2018).
Call for Contributions: Special Themed Issue
of ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies
Climate, arts, and activism: Critical Inter- and transdisciplinary
perspectives The debate about the socio-ecological crisis has moved to the center of society. What conditions and practices are needed for art-science collaborations that will contribute to transforming society towards critical climate and ecological justice? That is the guiding question for the proposed special issue.
We welcome contributions from different academic disciplines (geography, environmental humanities, sustainability studies, transformation research), artistic research/submissions, design research, and other fields of practice. Proposals are encouraged from regions, cultures, and people that have not been previously featured or addressed in the discourses and scholarship.
Contributions to this themed issue of ACME within the scope of ACME’s topics may be represented in a wide variety of formats to capture and reflect the scope and range of perspectives. The language of the issue is English. We invite journal articles (up to 9’000 words), roundtables, interviews, and visual analyses, as well as creative or multimedia contributions, including Poetry, Comics, & Speculative Fiction, performances, or podcasts.
Deadline for abstracts: 15th of October 2025
Selection / Notification: 15th of November 2025
First drafts: 1st of April 2026
Final Copy: 1st March 2027
Publication: May 2027
DOWNLOAD OPEN CALL
Co-edited by Yvonne Schmidt (Bern Academy of the Arts), Susan Thieme (University of Bern) and Mirko Winkel (University of Bern)
Symposium on Climate Change Education & Communication at SGM 2025 in Bern
!Call for Abstracts! – !Call for Abstracts!
«Climate Change Education and Communication»
23rd Swiss Geoscience Meeting – Conference
Johanna Paschen, PhD of the EcoArtLab, is co-convening the 23rd Swiss Geoscience Meeting on «Climate Change Education and Communication», taking place in Bern on Saturday, 6 December 2025.
Despite high levels of public awareness about anthropogenic climate change and increasing pressure on the political sphere, climate action among large parts of the general public still remains relatively low. So, what are the individual and societal preconditions, factors, and mechanisms that facilitate or prevent action on climate change among different segments of the population? And what are the potentials and limitations for climate change education and communication efforts? Here, various disciplines within the educational, psychological, social and climate sciences, as well as humanities can provide the theoretical and practical instruments to understand public engagement with climate change.
This session aims to provide multiple perspectives into the challenges and opportunities of climate change communication and education. Inviting contributions from a broad range of disciplines (e.g., education, psychology, communication, public understanding of science, humanities, social and natural sciences, arts, artistic research), this session focuses on the perception, processing, communication, application, learning, and education of climate information and knowledge. Talks or posters may relate to all approaches (e.g., theoretical and practical, quantitative and qualitative), scales (e.g., local, national, global), and age levels (e.g., children, adolescents, adults).
Talks or posters may relate to all approaches (e.g., theoretical and practical, quantitative and qualitative), scales (e.g., local, national, global), and age levels (e.g., children, adolescents, adults). We encourage contributions from young scientists (Master- or PhD-projects), while interdisciplinary projects are especially welcomed too.
Call for abstracts
Deadline for submissions: Firday, 29. August 2025
Abstracts will be initially assigned to the session indicated by the authors at the time of abstract submission. Abstracts should be submitted electronically following the instructions on the SGM 2025 website.
Unfortunately, presentations can only be given in person.
Registration
Until Saturday 1 November 2025(open from beginning of September on).
Registration and payments must be made electronically following the instructions on the SGM 2025 website
Fieldwork Denmark: Technical University of Denmark, DTU Aqua Institute | Visiting artist-researcher | Riikka Tauriainen
Grateful for the chance to join marine biologists in the field! We are studying plankton: micro-organisms and jellyfish in the Limfjord.
This is part of Riikkas ongoing research at the EcoArLab, HKB / IPTK within the art-science Project Plankton Ecosystems, where we explore the intersections of ecology, art, and marine science.
Thanks to the SNSF mobility grant for making this exchange possible and to Riikkas amazing collaborator Marta Musso for the inspiring teamwork.
Photos: Riikka Tauriainen
«micro-organisms and jellyfish in the Limfjord»
Grateful for the chance to join marine biologists in the field! We are studying plankton: micro-organisms and jellyfish in the Limfjord.
This is part of Riikkas ongoing research at the EcoArLab, HKB / IPTK within the art-science Project Plankton Ecosystems, where we explore the intersections of ecology, art, and marine science.
Thanks to the SNSF mobility grant for making this exchange possible and to Riikkas amazing collaborator Marta Musso for the inspiring teamwork.
Photos: Riikka Tauriainen
