Fellow Travellers. Art as a Tool to Change the World

How can we coexist on our planet? Volume 3 of the Fellow Travellers publication series documents the exhibition chapter Assembling Grounds, which opened at the ZKM in July 2025, and addresses the fields of nature and ecology from perspectives that are evolving from the ground up – beyond the metropoles and privileged centers.

The publication brings together artistic positions and activist projects that emerged from the interlocal network of the traveling exhibition Critical Zones (2022–24). Artists from India and Sri Lanka, together with actors from Karlsruhe, explore new forms of coexistence between people of different cultures and between human and non-human life forms.

The works presented – many of them new productions – question modern paradigms of technological progress and counter them with micro-histories of cultural resistance. They archive local traditions and knowledge, work with organic materials, and explore alternative economic forms. Art practice thus becomes a medium for restoring endangered knowledge about sustainable coexistence.