Sensing Interdependence: Film Screening

In the context of the exhibition Sensing Interdependence, de Appel screens the documentary I Am the River, the River Is Me (2025) at Filmtheater Kriterion, accompanied by a screening of video work by A4C titled Vilcabamba, de iura fluminis et terrae (2022): a visual and sonic representation of rivers with rights throughout the world, and a short reading by the curator of the exhibition.

In 2017, the Whanganui River in Aotearoa/New Zealand became the first river in the world to be granted the same rights as humans. This was the result of a legal battle lasting more than 150 years by the Maori, who regard the river as their ancestors, as an indivisible and spiritual being. I Am the River, the River Is Me follows a five-day canoe journey along this river. Guided by a Māori guardian, the film explores the river’s profound impact on Indigenous rights and environmental stewardship.

Sensing Interdependence is a retrospective exhibition at de Appel on the work of the Italian art collective Arts For the Commons (A4C), a collaboration between Ecuadorian artist Rosa Jijón and activist and artistic researcher Francesco Martone. The exhibition tackles the notion of interdependence between nature and humans. The works on show ask audiences to harness interdependency in order to navigate the complexities of climate justice, resistance against extractivism, the legal personhood of ecosystems, and new institutional art forms in the ecological crises of our times.