Have We Met? Humans And Non-humans On Common Ground

The view that the earth exists solely for human exploitation must be radically rethought to confront today's environmental crises. Have We Met? therefore examines what attitudes, tools and technologies are necessary to recalibrate the relationship between humans and non-humans.

An urban area in Rotterdam, a regenerative farm in the Netherlands' rural east, and an abandoned North Sea oil rig: these three ecologically diverse sites help to explore the possibilities for interspecies relationships. Nature studies traditionally rely on quantitative data, while human experience is assessed with qualitative means. Could these methods be mixed to give a better insight into how humans and non-humans can learn to share space and cooperate? As the whole world is, in one way or another, touched by human policies and tools, it is perhaps time to investigate their effects towards multispecies cohabitation.

Have We Met? explores a range of possible collaborative tools developed by practitioners across art, design, agriculture, and data-and marine sciences. Works include Chicken Mobile, designed by Harald den Breejen and Sjoerd van Leeuwen for regenerative farm Bodemzicht. The mobile offers a simple solution for regenerating compacted and degraded soil by recalibrating the natural rhythms between grass and grazinganimals. Also on show is Borgþór, a documentary by Brynjar Sigurðarson and Sebastian Ziegler following a hermit spending his winters looking for a bull fish in the remote Icelandic countryside. The hermit patiently investigates what might interest the fish in an attempt to find a common ground.

Het Nieuwe Instituut & Triennale di Milano

July 15–December 11, 2022

Milan, Italy