The Audement at IABR

The Embassy of the North Sea presented – together with Studio Ossidiana (Giovanni Bellotti and Alessandra Covini) an edition of the Audement at the 10th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, from 22 September – 13 November 2022.

it’s about time

Fifty years after the publication of the Club of Rome report, the 10th edition of the Architecture Biennale Rotterdam was taking stock. The exhibition brought historical research (from 1972 onward), inspiring practical examples (in 2022) and future scenarios (towards 2072) together. This overview painted a both worrisome and hopeful picture. The exhibition featured the work of architects, urban designers, artists, academics and landscape designers that documents and maps the causes and consequences of climate change. Their observations created a contemporary landscape reflecting the effects of climate change and called for a response to this constructed hyperreality.

The Audement

The Embassy of the North Sea listens to the political voice of the North Sea and life in it. A nature inclusive democracy, however, also requires new political arenas. That is why we are building the Audement. Unlike in a parliament where speaking – between people – is central, in the Audement it is all about listening to non-humans: the water, the sand, the fish and the seagulls.

The edition of the Audement at IABR, in front of the Ferro in Rotterdam, imagined a section of the earth, connecting the bottom of the sea to the sky. A circular garden inhabited by tall perches and bird feeders, emerged from a heap of shells and sand. As birds feed, play, and deposit guano on the heap, they disperse seeds, fertilize the ground, and become the gardeners of the heap. It is a place to observe and be observed, to feed and collect, to do birdwatching or look for mussels, razor clams, oysters and sea snails beneath the gaze of the birds, above a bed of shells.

The Audement at IABR was supported by BPD Cultuurfonds.