In this live edition of The One Minutes hosted by Het Nieuwe Instituut, we look at the sea through the eyes of young people from the Maldives, the novelist Alma Mathijsen, Maltese NGO Kinemastik, and many others.

Sea levels are rising. A rise of one metre would cause millions of people to lose their homes, fleeing the water as their land becomes uninhabitable.

Through Akwatik we explore the land-sea dialects that are ubiquitous in maritime anthropology. Colonialism, independence, development policies and nature conservation have all disrupted the communities that inhabit maritime space. The sea has never been seen as a human space, marked by cultural diversity, but as a homogenously and irrevocably wild place, resistant to any form of domestication. Until recently, Western models dominated ideas about the sea, but with a reversal taking place, a middle way is opened - a space of reflection that is scientific, political and social. This evening moves from land to sea and from air to water, attempting to take space without demanding it.

Akwatik is a collaboration between The One Minutes Foundation, Kinemastik and Het Nieuwe Instituut on the occasion of the exhibition Temporary House of Home.

Programme

Julia van Mourik (director of The One Minutes Foundation) will open the event, which will feature one-minute videos by the young people of the Maldives, which as the lowest-lying country in the world is extremely vulnerable to climate change, plus 17 videos from the one-minute series Akwatik, followed by a Q&A with some of the participating artists. Alma Mathijsen will read from her novel Vergeet de meisjes (Forget the Girls), about the Korean women who free dive searching for cockles: the fisherwomen breadwinners of their community.

More information: thursdaynight.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/en/activities/akwatik