River Landscapes: A New Glossary

With Noor Ahmed, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Sara Blanco, Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa, Sonia Mehra Chawla, iLiana Fokianaki, Silvia Franceschini, Natasha Ginwala, Johannes Hedinger, Mira Hirtz, Martina Huber, Nusrat Khawaja, Kim de l'Horizon, Margarida Mendes, Anushka Rajendran.

We often think of water as belonging to the land it borders; River Landscapes: A New Glossary centers rivers as life systems that have enabled land and communities to flourish. The project is a transdisciplinary initiative between Europe and South Asia, focused on living with rivers. It questions the extractive ways in which water bodies are framed and governed, proposing a bottom-up approach in which glossary entries are co-created by local communities, artists, and scientists through field research and workshops, oral history archives, commissioned exhibitions, and publications.

The co-created glossary began in 2023 and is being launched as an open-source, digital format, through three River Talks taking place in Europe and South Asia, between May and July 2026, in a hybrid format (online and in-person). Dates and sign-up links below.

River Talks (May 13 and July 2, 2026, Online and in Karachi) invite contributors to engage with the Glossary through their own practices, sharing work and producing annotations that expand its meanings. Each River Talk will be different and bring together four diverse voices across disciplines. Hosted by River Landscapes, Karachi Biennale 2027, WE ARE AIA I Awareness in Art, and Prameya Art Foundation; more details here.

River Talk I: May 13, 1–4pm (CEST time)
Please register here for online participation.

River Talk II: July 2, 1–4pm (CEST time)
Please register here for online participation.

River Talk II: July 2, 4–7pm (GMT)
Please register here for in-person participation in Karachi.

Please register here to receive the recordings of River Talks I and II.

The glossary launch (June 13, 2026, online and in Zurich) will culminate with Kim de l’Horizon’s performance Alpine Cosmologies: Fluid Dragons & Kanderwelsch, preceded by a discussion with River Landscapes core team members. The launch is hosted by WE ARE AIA / Awareness in Art during Zurich Art Weekend at Löwenbräukunst, Schwarzescafé. More details here.

Glossary launch: June 13, 2026, 12:15–1:30pm (CEST time)
Please register here for in-person participation in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Glossary launch: June 13, 2026, 12:15–1:30pm (CEST time)
Please register here for online participation via live-stream or recording.

River Landscapes: A New Glossary is an initiative by Martina Huber, Mira Hirtz, Noor Ahmed, Ravi Agarwal, Johannes Hedinger, Ruxmini Choudhury, Jahnavi Phalkey, Debjani Bhattacharyya, Ishita Chakraborty, and Anushka Rajendran. The project is supported by Pro Helvetia Synergies fund and initiated by WE ARE AIA I Awareness in Art in partnership with The Citizens Archive of Pakistan, Karachi Biennale 2027, Toxic Links, University of Zurich, Science Gallery Bengaluru, ILEA—The Institute for Land and Environmental Art, Prameya Art Foundation, and Samdani Art Foundation.

Karachi Biennale 2027 (KB27) posits Karachi as an urban archipelago of invention, mythologies, and habitats, where sediments of the past and horizons of the future mingle in brackish currents. KB27 will take place in Karachi, Pakistan, from January 16–31, 2027, and is curated by Noor Ahmed. Martina Huber will co-curate an exhibition at KB27 that builds upon the research collected through the River Landscapes project. Karachi Biennale is Pakistan’s largest contemporary art event and the flagship project of The Karachi Biennale Trust (KBT), which was founded in 2016 by a group of art professionals and educators as a platform to promote creativity, innovation, and criticality in the visual arts. KBT is a registered not-for-profit trust that works closely with a network of philanthropists and local and international cultural and educational organizations. For KB27, Noor is supported by a curatorial team that includes Behram Farooqui, Abeeha Hussain, Ramsha Khan, and Adan Shaikh.

WE ARE AIA I Awareness in Art is an independent cultural institution based in Zurich, founded in 2021 by Martina Huber at the Löwenbräu Contemporary Art Center. Co-created by a growing network of collaborators, artists, researchers, and local knowledge keepers, AIA is a platform for encounter, dialogue, and collective imagination. It develops exhibitions, performances, educational initiatives, and transdisciplinary projects that connect artistic research with scientific, local, and lived knowledge. AIA creates space for shared enquiry and international exchange around urgent societal and environmental issues. At WE ARE AIA, Martina is supported by the curatorial team consisting of Joslyne Ramazani Ohoka, Marina Müller, and Bettina Rohr, as well as by art mediator Alexandra Eichenauer.