»Muddy Measures: When Wetlands and Heritage Converse«, is a project that explores how heritage perspectives reshape our understanding of wetlands and, in turn, how wetlands influence the way we think about heritage. It features international convenings, a research-led seminar, and an exhibition with an accompanying programme.
Wetlands are created where water meets land. Activists record the calls of endangered migratory birds in the Wadden Sea, people dance barefoot in wetlands, soil scientists stick their tools into the peat, farmers drain bogs for agriculture, artists dip their hands into swamps. Different interests and forms of knowledge come together in wetlands. Measurements are central to both natural and cultural heritage and wetlands - be it when attributing value to things, defining living beings as endangered species, or justifying specific conservation measures.
"Muddy Measures: When Wetlands and Heritage Converse" explores the relationship between wetlands and heritage. The exhibition looks at how different layers of soil preserve memories, activate the present and shape possible futures. The expression "murky measurements" is inherently contradictory. Measurements aim to make something understandable and comparable, often for research purposes, but also for exploitation or control.
The term "muddy", on the other hand, evokes opacity and ambiguity. Combining the two terms helps us to examine the paradoxes that arise from one-dimensional views of these particular ecosystems. It encourages us to consider the different relationships with wetlands over time and to discuss how measurement methods are used for different purposes.
These paradoxes and questions find resonance in three specific case studies - in Berlin-Brandenburg, Patagonia and on the west coast of Korea - as well as in the accompanying programme and the monthly changing exhibition contributions dedicated to research projects based in Berlin. These perspectives were expanded in a research-based seminar and several online workshops.
"Muddy Measures" is a collaborative project initiated by inherit.heritage in transformation and developed in exchange with researchers, artists, curators and environmental activists across different times and regions.
