Zoepolis -water

The ZOEpolis / Water project is an interdisciplinary, performative event consisting of activities inthe space of Sobieszewo Island, as well as an exhibition.It is realised together with architects, artists and designers working in various media, as well asbiologists, who not only provide scientific knowledge and research tools, but also actively create the works that make up the project. The event will take place at ARTLAB Wyspa on Sobieszewo Island and at various locations on the Island.
Every molecule of water - in our cells, in the mud under our feet, in rivers, rain and glaciers - was created before the Earth was formed. There is not going to be any more or less water on our planet. At the same time, the life of virtually all organisms, including our own, is determined by where it is, what it becomes, how and where it flows. Sobieszewo Island is a lens through which dozens of water-related issues come into focus, such as river regulation, land reclamation,  the ever-decreasing salinity of the Baltic Sea, wetland drainage, micro- and macro-scale extractive economies, agricultural monocultures, municipal sewage disposal, not to mention issues related to life in water, on the surface and in the soil. It is also a unique, vibrant ecosystem where freshwater meets saltwater, rare species live and lush vegetation feeds humans and non-humans alike.  It is there, at the interface between sea and land, that the Baltic spits out wash margin, a fertile  mix of nature and culture, plovers lay their eggs, beavers build their structures, seals lounge nearby.
A series of events organised as part of ZOEpolis, a long-term project dedicated to human-non- human communities, will present the results of artistic and design research carried out on Sobieszewo Island from September 2022. The main protagonist is water, viewed through the prism of the life that teems on and around the island, where every matter and organism tells its story of encounter with this life-giving substance.

Schedule of events:
Friday, September 8
19:00 Opening of the exhibition + meeting with participants
Place: former evangelical chapel, 51 Mieczyslaw Bogucki St., Sobieszewo Island, Gdansk 
20:30 Inter-species feast
Place: Art Lab of the Progress Island Foundation, 95 Kempingowa St., Sobieszewska Island, Gdańsk 
Saturday, September 9, 
12:00-14:30 Exhibition open to the public
Place: former Evangelical chapel, 51 Mieczyslaw Bogucki St., Sobieszewska Island, Gdansk 
15:00-16:00 Unveiling of the Collector's Monument (walk)
Place of collection: former Evangelical chapel, 51 Mieczyslaw Bogucki St., Sobieszewo Island, Gdansk 
16:00-17:00 Salt Walk .Place of collection: collector's estuary 
 18:30-20:00 Soft and clammy. A two-way conversation with the audience and the reedbed
Gathering place: reed bed at the Bold Vistula: 
Sunday, September 10,
12:00-15:00 Exhibition open to the public
Place: former Evangelical chapel, 51 Mieczyslaw Bogucki St., Sobieszewo Island, Gdansk 
15:00-15:45 Guided tour of the exhibition
Place: Former Evangelical chapel, 51 Mieczyslaw Bogucki St., Sobieszewo Island, Gdansk 
 16:00 Listening from the field
Place: Art Lab of the Progress Island Foundation, 95 Kempingowa St.

Participants: Amber, Apple Tree, Baltic Clam, Baltic Pine, Baltic Sea, Barnacle, Beach Rose,
Benthos, Black Coal, Black Elderberry, Black Garden Ant, Black Locust, Piotr Blajerski, Blue
Mussel, Broadleaf Cattail, Caddisfly, Cellular Concrete, Centrala (Malgorzata Kuciewicz, Simone
de Iacobis), Charcoal, Clay, Common Reed, Common Wheat, Cyanobacteria, Dead Vistula,
Diatoms, Duck Mussel, Edaphone, Euglena, European Beaver, European Honey Bee, European
Sea Sturgeon, Full Brick, Geotrupes Stercorarius, Grey Dune, Gull, Malgorzata Gurowska, Grey
Seal, Ewa Hiller, Marcin Hiller, Krystyna Jędrzejewska-Szmek, Martyna Kuczyńska, Lagoon
Cockle, Maize, Meioplastic, Mirabelle Plum, Moon, Mud, Mute Swan, Myrmeleon Formicarius,
Neuston, Jowita Nowakowska-Gołacka, Alicja Patanowska, Pedunculate Oak, Plankton, Plastic,
Prymnesium Parvum, Ringed Plover, Roe Deer, Katarzyna Roj, Rowan, Salt, Sand, Sand Sedge,
Sewage Collector, Anna Siekiera, Soft-Shell Clam, Swollen River Mussel, Agata Szydłowska, Tick,
Vistula, Viviparus Viviparus, Wash Margin, Water Macrobiom, White Willow, Yellow Dune, Simon
Zakrzewski and others.

 

Cofinanced by the City of Gdańsk.