Becoming River: Artistic research in the Murg Valley

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Becoming River: Artistic research in the Murg Valley

As part of the Clim’Ability Care programme (Interreg IV Upper Rhine), the artistic research project BECOMING RIVER, led by the Media Ecology Lab at the University of Offenburg, has spent the last three years exploring, through artistic means, the challenges posed by climate change by living alongside and in harmony with the River Murg in the Black Forest.

For around 40 million years, the Murg has been winding its way through the northern Black Forest. Today, it flows between the road and the railway line, passing hotels, workshops and laundries, through a landscape where nature and human activity merge. Near Gernsbach, its course changes:

Canals, walls and kerbs increasingly define the river’s course. Further downstream, the Murg is gradually straightened until it finally flows into the Rhine. And yet, this river represents much more than meets the eye: it evokes feelings of security, longing and fear.

In Motion: Artistic Research in Practice

For three years, the research team led by Professor Daniel Fetzner, his colleagues Adrian Schwartz, Janna Häcker and Ephraim Wegner, in collaboration with students, external artists, project partners from the University of Freiburg led by Professor Rüdiger Glaser and theorist Martin Dornberg, studied the Murg as a hydrosphere and habitat. They spent time with people living along the river and immersed themselves in their stories. A fish farmer, a family of gardeners, a sawmill operator, young people on the riverbanks, an elderly man in a care home, a waiter further upstream – and many more besides. Their stories are linked to water, to places, to atmospheres. Often, they didn’t seek things out, but let themselves be carried along – with a probe in the river, open to whatever they encountered.

Interactive web documentation

The results of this project are compiled in an interactive web documentation that allows you to immerse yourself in the narrative and relive the research team’s journey.

The interactive web documentation is available here:

https://www.becomingriver.com/

Project newspaper

The newspaper compiled throughout the project can be viewed here in digital format:

http://deglobalize.com/paper/river.pdf

Final participatory exhibition: 10–14 June 2026

In June, the project’s findings will be presented to a wide audience. To mark the launch, a symposium bringing together researchers on the theme of ‘Art and Science in Dialogue’ will take place on 10 June at 6 pm in the conference hall of the ZKM | Centre for Art and Media.

From 12 to 14 June 2026, Gernsbach Town Hall will host a multimedia exhibition open to all, showcasing a wide range of films, experimental works, installations and performances.

The various film works are being screened in the small auditorium of the Stadthalle during opening hours. The team led by Daniel Fetzner, Ephraim Wegner and filmmaker Adrian Schwartz from the University of Offenburg, along with other artists and researchers involved in the project, will be present and look forward to chatting with you.

It is in the main hall of the Stadthalle that these impressions come together. In video installations, images of construction sites, dams, the River Murg and human beings are juxtaposed. They raise questions: what do we hold back, what do we let flow? What rises to the surface, what is repressed? Where do we build dams – and why? Where are we vulnerable, dependent? And where do we cause harm?

But it is not only the climate that is changing. Economic, social and personal circumstances are also undergoing profound change. What once seemed reliable is becoming permeable. Certainties shift, perspectives evolve. The river becomes a metaphor for the processes affecting us as a community – gently, sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes with great force.

Programme:

Wednesday 10 June at 6 pm – ZKM Karlsruhe, conference room

Round table discussion on ‘Art and Science’ focusing on the example of Becoming River

Prof. Daniel Fetzner, University of Offenburg Prof. Dr Rüdiger Glaser, University of Freiburg Prof. Dr Florence Rudolph, INSA Strasbourg Dr med. Dr. Martin Dornberg, University of Freiburg Sebastian Schleier, RWTH Aachen Adrian Schwartz, Ludwigsburg Film Academy Moderator: Jürgen Reuss

Work from the Media Ecology Laboratory at the University of Offenburg

– Murg Hydrosphere with 8 screens (installation)

– Sonification of climate data 1850–2025 (concert)

Friday 12 June at 7 pm, Gernsbach Town Hall

Opening of the exhibition by Daniel Fetzner & Team
Welcome addresses by the mayor (invited) and the sub-prefecture
Meet the artists
Performance ‘Hexensabbat’ (Marie Kalvelage)
Floods and water retention in the Murg Valley (Rüdiger Glaser, climatologist, University of Freiburg)
Displacement and turbulence in Gernsbach (Wolfgang Froese, municipal archivist, invited)
Screening of a film with live electronic musical accompaniment by Jan Pattscheck

Saturday 13 June, 10 am

Cyanotype workshop on the Murg Island
Graphic arts workshop by the University of Offenburg in collaboration with the Gernsbach Paper Mill School (to be confirmed)
7 pm Presentation of the book ‘Klimadämmerung’ (Rüdiger Glaser) Presentation of the brochure ‘Climate-Resilient Murg Valley Region’ Discussion with the artists

Sunday 14 June, 11 am: Matinee