11.00 - 13.00: Workshop Brackish Collective in the Sandberg Kitchen

16.00 - 18.00 Lecture Müge Yilmaz Theory Stairs, Rietveld Academie,

with a performative salt-resistant bite by the Brackish Collective

Register here for Müge’s lecture and the bite by the Brackish Collective (16.00 - 18.00 hrs).
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There are limited seats available at the Brackish Collective workshop (11.00 - 13.00 hrs). Therefor we kindly ask you to write a short motivation if you want to join and send it to Laura Dubourjal (laura.dubourjal@rietveldacademie.nl).

The Research Group on Art & Spatial Praxis (LASP) has welcomed Müge Yilmaz as an artist-in-residence, specifically within the artistic research studio of the Climate Imaginaries at Sea project. Yılmaz's work engages with speculative narratives, often framed through the lens of feminist science fiction. Throughout the academic year, she collaborates with students specialising in Textile and Architectural Design, focusing her research on the phenomena of salt and salinisation.

Yılmaz's inquiry delves into the ramifications of salinisation on both soil quality and architectural structures. This issue gains urgency in the context of rising sea levels, and ground subsidence, which result in the intrusion of saline water into freshwater sources and soil. While saline soil is generally deemed infertile for traditional agriculture, innovative approaches are emerging. For instance, experimental farms cultivate salt-tolerant crops and halophytes, a specific type of plant that thrives in saline conditions. Moreover, in regions where flooding is a recurrent issue, bio-saline farming and aquaculture have already been implemented. Yılmaz's research aims to document these existing practices while also exploring the untapped potential of salt as both an architectural and artistic medium. This exploration will consider salt's real-time and speculative roles in shaping both urban and non-urban landscapes and our relation to and understanding of rising sea levels, the core theme of Climate Imaginaries at Sea.

Before Müge Yilmaz' lecture, from 11.00 to 13.00, you have the opportunity to attend a workshop by the Brackish Collective in the kitchen of the Sandberg Instituut. Working with halophytes and other salt-resistant plants - all which grow in the dunes and coastal areas of The Netherlands - this workshop will be an experimental tasting and attempt at collaborative sensorial mapping involving ten plants, ranging from sea asparagus and dune roses to sea purslane, sea buckthorn and red clover, amongst others.

Born in Istanbul, Müge Yilmaz lives and works in Amsterdam. Her research presents speculations influenced by feminist science fiction and proposes narratives about the future through installation, performance and photography. Recent exhibitions include The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennial, 2022, The Seventh Continent, 16th Istanbul Biennial, 2019; Why Not Ask Again? 11th Shanghai Biennial, 2016; Tenminste Houdbaar Tot, Museum Arnhem, 2022; Posterity Hill (solo) at Wilfried Lentz, 2022; On Protection (solo), Bureau Postjesweg, 2021; That Those Beings Be Not Being, W139, Amsterdam, 2021. She has been a resident artist at ACC and is alumna of Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam.

In her work, she examines the paradoxes around the concept of protection with focus on community, survival and belief (faith). Through performances, photographs and installations she creates immersive environments inspired by feminist science-fiction. Following the concept of three ecologies for observing the mental (subjective), societal and environmental developments in a parallel method, she uses these mediums as tools for envisioning potential futures. While keeping protection as a common denominator, her research creates speculations on preservation and scarcity. She constantly looks for trigger points in shape of visual manifestations that provoke subconscious reactions and reflexes.

Climate Imaginaries at Sea is part of the Art Route NWA-project ‘Bit by bit, or not at all’ within the scheme ‘Small Projects’ which is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This project was made possible with the support of Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation CoECI (www.coeci.nl).