... land*scapes

20.10.2025
Carmen Caro

The session will focus on the notion of landscape as a colonising force that permeates all aspects of our existence and stems from a Western extractivist mindset. We will touch on basic concepts related to the topic in an open dialogue from non-oppressive practices. From this point, the interactive conversation will revolve around the responsibility of artists and cultural workers in the context we inhabit today. We will reflect together on how we approach our work and for whom we do it. Open to everyone, with or without knowledge of the topic, but with curiosity and interest.

Carmen Caro: Colombian interdisciplinary artist and activist. Carmen uses artistic practices as forms of care, advocacy, and research (towards the territory, bodies of water, resistance, affection) through deep listening, ecology, food, and words. She focuses on non-oppressive practices, situated knowledge, and challenging hegemonic power structures from the perspective of community experience.

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land*scapes are memory – they forget neither colonialism nor the climate crisis, and they will also remember AI. Soil samples are not the only evidence of how human ideas and activities shape landscapes. If we learn to read them, we see more than forests, seas, mountains and idyllic nature. They are the result of attributions, interventions and power relations – and bear traces of colonialism, extractivism and ecological destruction. At the same time, they open up spaces for resistance, regeneration, care, diversity and creativity. They tell of borders and resistance, of care and displacement.

In our winter lecture series, we encounter one of these landscapes and artistic perspectives on climate justice each week. Methods and practices show how landscapes are shaped by language, perspectives and boundaries – and how different perceptions arise depending on the angle of view. How do we shape landscapes and how do they shape us? What needs to change in order to preserve the foundations of life? And what role can art play in this?

We invite you to become part of these land*scapes: to listen to them, feel them and change them creatively. Together, we will create a winter landscape full of knowledge, experiences and encounters across the degree programmes. The event will conclude with a cosy hot drink.