BECOMING RIVER – Fluss werden

For over two million years, the Murg River has shaped the Northern Black Forest. Today, it flows between infrastructure and industry, embedded within a landscape where nature and human use are closely intertwined. From Gernsbach onward, its course becomes increasingly regulated; farther downstream, straightening and embankments define its appearance until it eventually empties into the Rhine. Yet the river is more than a geographical line – it represents experiences, emotions, and relationships between humans and the environment.

As part of the Interreg project “Clim'Ability Care,” researchers and students at Hochschule Offenburg, led by Prof. Daniel Fetzner, spent more than six years investigating the challenges posed by climate change in the Upper Rhine region and the Murg Valley. The results of BECOMING RIVER, which thematically engages with questions explored in the exhibition “Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics,” will be presented to the public in June. The opening event will be a panel at ZKM featuring scientists, artists, and researchers.

Over the course of several years, the project accompanied people living along the Murg in relation to changes in both external and internal water levels. A probe made of driftwood,  which floated through the water and washed ashore at different points along the riverbanks, guided the researchers. To a fish breeder, to a neurological clinic, to a sawmill operator, to young people by the riverbank, to an elderly man in a nursing home, and ultimately – to themselves. The stories washed ashore become interwoven with places, moods, and the water itself. The approach remained open and observational – moving alongside, drifting with the current, sensorily receptive to whatever emerged.

The evening program, consisting of a panel, film screening, and concert, connects scientific findings with artistic perspectives and invites participants to discuss alternative approaches to the relationship between humans and the environment. 

Additional results of the artistic research will be exhibited from June 12 to 14 at the Gernsbach Town Hall. Alongside installation-based works, extensive film works directed by Adrian Schwartz will also be on display. Visitors are warmly invited to contribute their own artifacts and stories relating to the Murg to the exhibition. Because, as Daniel Fetzner puts it: “Becoming terrestrial means beginning with oneself.”

Participants:
Prof. Daniel Fetzner, media artist / HS Offenburg
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Glaser, geographer / Uni Freiburg
Prof. Dr. Florence Rudolph, sociologist / INSA Strasbourg
Dr. Dr. Martin Dornberg, psychosomatic specialist and philosopher, Uni Freiburg
Bastian Schleier, architect / RWTH Aachen
Adrian Schwartz, director / Filmakademie Ludwigsburg

STAU/FALL film of a performance, 13min

KLIMADÄMMERUNG 1750–2025
Audiovisual concert and discussion with electronic musician Prof. Ephraim Wegner

Moderation: Jürgen Reuss


Until June 14, 2026, the 8-channel video installation “Hydrosphere Murg” from the Media Ecology Lab at Offenburg University will be on view in front of the lecture hall.