Wetness walk

As the climate crisis escalates further, the notion of wetness is becoming an increasingly urgent issue around the world. Amsterdam and its surroundings are situated on the muddy lands along the North Sea, which are to a large extent reclaimed from all kinds of bodies of water while also often lying below sea level. At the same time, this part of the world has in recent years been undergoing various periods of extreme drought, posing a wide range of (spatial) challenges across the region. Amsterdam and its almost entirely man-made surroundings not only provide an insightful landscape to discuss wetness, but its past, present and future can also not be fully understood without some basic knowledge around these issues. 

This programme starts at the Goethe-Institut, along the Herengracht, where members of Loom will share the experience of the Rhine River Rehearsal. During this week-long journey through the Rhine River basin in the first week of September, they reimagined our relationship with (a lack of) water, or wetness, and generated images, sounds and ideas beyond the more traditional representations of rivers, such as maps and diagrams. Following this introduction, we will embark on a mini exploration of Amsterdam’s water bodies, from the canals and the Amstel River to the banks of the IJ. During this wetness walk we will discuss, analyze, map, draw, record and experience wetness, while, crucially, we also try to understand how wetness can be used as a broader metaphor for how we perceive and conceive our changing environment. 

The Wetness Walks were originally developed and organized in response to a request by the Architectural Design department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie to explore these notions together with a group of students. 
 
As part of the Borderland Residencies programme, the wetness walk will continue the next day around the former Hambach open-cast mine in Merzenich, Germany. 

Host or Publisher Goethe-Institut Niederlande