Manifesto

Zenne river

Zenne river

Zenne is a river that starts under a willow tree, humbly seeping to the surface in a field held open by trees, trickling down the slope to be slowly joined by water from its many sources, like the roots of a tree in the village of Naast. Its body widens and meanders its way over 103 km to its confluence in Zennegat, where it bifurcates with the rivers Dyle, Nete, Rupel, and Scheldt and later mixes with the salt of the North Sea. It is a resilient river that has been reshaped, redirected, buried and considered dead as one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. Yet, with the solidarity and support of its companion plants, bacteria and restorative projects, it came back to life. With this river, we can learn a story of adaptation and survival that emerges with the cooperation of the beings that cohabit its waters and the many people who remember its stories and love this river.

Natural Contract Lab

Natural Contract Lab is a transdisciplinary artistic practice that aims to create an active and sustained dialogue with bodies of water undergoing deep ecological transformation. Our artistic interventions are hybrid and unfold differently with respect to each river as dialogue in an attempt to collaborate with and imagine gestures of care. With the aim of fabulating new forms of justice, we have co-created an artistic Protocol of Reciprocal Care weaving the practices of restorative justice, rights of rivers, environmental grief, sensory eco-scenography and somatic scores. NCL is a body of care that invites others for moments of walking-with the river, water mourning circles, collective gestures of care, Agoras, guardians of river Schools and other actions that emerge in collaboration with the fish, people, plants and other water beings.