A Journey of Artistic Discovery Across Europe
IN SITU: RESISTING WATERS
Organised by Gaudeamus, Netherlands
Resisting Waters reflects on the social, political, and spiritual aspects of water infrastructure in a four-day programme featuring sound installations, performances, and in-depth exploration, including work by Caro de Valk, Mariko Hori, Nischal Khadka & Merel Maan Galama.
This project aims to explore new ways of relating to water’s agency: in the context of floods and drought, within intimate and spiritual relations with water, or by resisting neoliberal and colonial exploitation of (ground)water resources. Through an Ulysses open call, Gaudeamus Festival (in collaboration with Residenties in Utrecht and University Museum Utrecht) invites artists Nischal Khadka and Merel Maan Galama to develop a site-specific response to one of the greenhouses of the Oude Hortus of the University Museum Utrecht. During a residency taking place in June, they have the possibility to do research and follow workshops with several researchers, experts and artists to inspire their newly-developed work. This will result in an installation that will be featured in the sound installation exhibition Resisting Waters exploring the agency of water.
Nischal Khadka is a Berlin-based Nepalese artist, curator, and sound practitioner working across performance, research, and cultural organising. His practice engages Himalayan sonic traditions, Indigenous knowledge systems, and experimental sound as forms of ecological and political inquiry. Through field recordings, listening environments, and curatorial projects, he explores the relationship between sound, memory, and landscape.
Merel Maan Galama is an artist and researcher. With a background in scenography and cultural anthropology, her practice spans research, literature, photography, and film and is grounded in field research on ecology and ecotonal listening. Galama weaves intimate encounters with broader socio-ecological questions, translating social scientific concepts into evocative, situated imaginaries.
Stay tuned for the complete line-up, which will be revealed in August.
