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), 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 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.

10am: 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

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 GARN 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 Garn Antarctic Rights Campaign, 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 Waterbodies (Christiane Bossman, Embassy of the North Sea)

5pm: Presentation of experimental format Water Bodies Orchestra by Smartphone Orchestra

This digital design project is a musical and embodied way to unlock the digital sound archive of European waters. Through interactive group experiences, the human and non-human voices of the water bodies will come together in a performative moment. This iteration of the Waterbodies Orchestra is the first text of a new experimental platform developed by the Smartphone Orchestra.

6.30pm: Drinks and bites