Wetland Game-performance at GENS Public Programme, 19th International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia, 2025. Conceived by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas and Raphaël Mathevet; programming: Terry Kang and Thomas Lee Harriett; prop design: Julia Varjund, Chengcheng Sheng, Elif Nur Gözaydın, Qu Weili and Öykü Önder; flag design: NODE Berlin.
Last week in Venice, Wetland Games bloomed into a small republic of reeds. We stepped into the wetlands and borrowed more-than-human senses. Masks, wearables, and totems—crafted with MA Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies students at NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano—tuned us to new species of attention. We became reed harvester, stock breeder, hunter, conservationist, even the elusive bittern. Together we sketched futures in the mud: co-created scenarios, played with hands-on models and climate-savvy rules, and traded strategies for adaptation and shared resources. The ecosystem spoke back, and we listened—negotiating, improvising, and glimpsing how sustainable life might assemble when every voice, human and more-than-human, gets a turn.
Participants: Julia Varjund (Artist and MA at NABA Milano), Chengcheng Sheng (Artist and MA at NABA Milano), Elif Nur Gözaydın (Architect and MA at NABA Milano), Qu Weili (Curator and MA at NABA Milano), Öykü Önder (Transdisciplinary Artist and MA at NABA Milano), Alexander Eriksson Furunes (Architect and Researcher at NTNU), Andris Brinkmanis (Course Leader of the MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA Milano), Eleonora Roaro (Artist and Lecturer at NABA Milano), Angela Vettese (Art Critic and Professor in Visual Arts at the IUAV University), Jane Da Mosto (Executive Director and Co-founder, We are here Venice ETS), Claudio Beorchia (Artist in residence at We are here Venice ETS for the WaterLANDS initiative), Cristina Baldacci (Principal Investigator of the Ecological Art Practices cluster at NICHE – Center for Environmental Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Andrea Conte (Artist and Director at Studio Andreco; Affiliate at NICHE at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Silvia Casini (Associate Professor in Film and Visual Culture at the University of Udine – UNIUD), Nicola Callegaro (Culture Sector, Venice city council), Marco Scurati (Venetian activist, Cultural event producer and biennale local coordinator), Paolo Rosso (Founder of Microclima, Venice), Valentina Ivancich Biaggini (Child psychiatrist and author, Consultant at Venice Gardens Foundation, Venice), Mario Festa (Ru.De.Ri. Association), Salvatore Festa (Ru.De.Ri. Association), Masters of Arts in Creative Media Production at NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti campus in Milan: Mariangela Mangone, Aaryan Kholi, Mirko Ditroia, Veronica Sbardellati.
Photo: Eglė Marija Želvytė, Urbonas Studio © the authors
Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture; the Creative Interdisciplinary New European Bauhaus (NEB) Research Centre at Vilnius Academy of Arts; and NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano
