Curated Exhibitions
Contested Coastal Worlds – Care and Conviviality in Coastal Life “, Haus der Wissenschaft, Bremen, Germany (November 2022 – February 2023)
Visit the virtual gallery here
(in partnership with Mangrove Maniacs, Bonaire; Dakshin Foundation, India; Mingas por el Mare , Ecuador; Bremen Dyke Association, DE; and Mercy Corps, Indonesia)
27/10/2022 | On Thursday, November 3, the Haus der Wissenschaft opened the photo exhibition “Contested Coastal Worlds – Care and Conviviality in Coastal Life.” I had the honour of co-curating this public photovoice exhibition while at Leibniz-ZMT, together with Dr. Johannes Herbeck from the Sustainability Research Center (Uni Bremen), and in partnership with the Bremischer Deichverband am rechten Weserufer, Mercy Corps (Indonesia), Dakshin Foundation (India), Mingas por el Mar (Ecuador) und Mangrove Maniacs (Bonaire).
The exhibition invites you to step into the lifeworlds of diverse frontline communities who are fiercely committed to progressive coastal change. Their narratives on everyday struggles, hopes and aspirations are retold through their own eyes – using photovoice and their own photographic stills spanning Ecuador, the Dutch Caribbean, Germany, India, Indonesia, and the Lakshadweep Islands.
Coasts act as dynamic interfaces between land and sea. They are highly complex and fragile spaces and face multiple challenges across the world. These interrelated issues include rising sea levels, ocean warming, the increase in marine plastic waste, erosion by ocean currents, surf and wind, and the increase in hazard situations due to storm surges and tsunamis. At the same time, coasts serve as crucial sites for infrastructure such as ports and industrial facilities, as well as spaces for popular recreational and residential areas with high demand from tourism and the construction sector.
For centuries, humans have influenced the form and function of coasts, with impacts on ecosystems, hydrology, and even the course of coastal currents. In densely built and populated coastal areas, for example in Europe and Southeast Asia, diverse values and socio-economic requirements of what a “good” coast ought to constitute, sometimes clashes irreconcilably. Yet people around the world remain committed to regenerating their local seacoast spaces, and in transforming them into thriving ecosystems and habitable spaces for living.
For the narrators, these coastal stories are as much about social and environmental justice and inclusive change as they are about issues of safety and security in the face of rising risks, housing, livelihood, and attachment to place. The exhibition also aimed to draw attention to the work of diverse womxn, which is often underrepresented in visions of coastal future-making.
Together, the storytellers form a chorus of voices – as grassroots activists, fishers, gleaners, coastal volunteers, dyke protectors, artists and scientists among others, who all embody very different kinds of experience and knowledge.
Contested Coastal Worlds – Virtual Gallery
“Living with Sea Level Change in Urban Southeast Asia”, Ci:Kini Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia (September 2018) – with Dr. Johannes Herbeck (University of Bremen)
Virtual Exhibition
