Confluence of Water Bodies

What would it mean to tell stories with or as a river rather than merely about it? Drawing on his project "talking salmon" with indigenous Sami river communities in Norway and Finland, writer and researcher Prof. Torsten Schäfer (Hochschule Darmstadt) explores storytelling as a practice of reciprocal more-than-human relationships. Following migratory fish across rivers and coastlines, the project treats narrative as a way of shifting from observation towards kinship, reciprocity and ecological imagination, as rooted in Sami storytelling and deep ecology (Joana Macy). This creative writing workshop experiments with four positions: telling stories about nature, in nature, with an animal, and — speculatively — from the perspective of a fish in the Spree. This shape shifting, inspired by anthropomorphism in Sami poems, opens new ways of thinking about rivers, climate adaptation and the narratives through which shared futures are imagined.

In an era of climate uncertainty, the ancient rivers of Mesopotamia can either divide nations or become arteries of peace. Moving beyond the narrative of geopolitical borders, this session explores the Tigris and Euphrates as connectors of people and nature. It confronts the destabilizing effects of mega-dams and the dangerous precedent of weaponizing water, while highlighting the resilience of local communities. Grounded in the cultural diversity of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, the discussion draws directly on the October 2025 Mesopotamia Water Forum in Diyarbakır/Amed, where over 300 activists from the four countries forged stronger alliances to protect the basin. Join us to turn shared challenges into shared solutions.

Have water bodies inspired us to find names and words, to enter a resonant space of relation with them? We want to listen to water in our native languages: to words that reflect the sound or stillness of rivers, lakes, ponds, lagoons, glaciers and the sea. Resonance, as proposed by sociologist Hartmut Rosa, implies a longing for vibrating relationships in all of us, and language is a powerful medium for strengthening it, weaving in our senses, memories and values. What effect do our words have on water, and what kind of relationship do we create? This workshop explores the language of water — clear, protected, free from harmful substances, bubbling, alive in its flow — and how remembering old words and telling new stories can bring the essence of water back into daily life.

A bookstore meets a water bar. kombibad books is a growing collection of publications, many of them about water; the Wasserbar collects tap water from different places and invites participants to contribute their own from home. Both art projects are installed at Spore and open for interaction throughout the day, and both are designed to bring people together and share knowledge about the element that covers 70% of the planet. In this two-hour workshop, participants record their personal water backgrounds — the water they belong to, and what they want to discover at the Spree. They are also invited to connect the different water voices of the Confluence into collective sonic material, edited into a listening piece by the independent Berlin-based station Cashmere Radio. Please bring 1 litre of water from home to share.

What body of water do you love? As we are mostly water ourselves, all of us have a connection to larger bodies of water. This workshop shows how grassroots activism, local policy change and shifts in legal and cultural perspective can be combined through the practice of "water weddings" — rituals that, rather than remaining symbolic gestures, become acts capable of changing how rivers are perceived, represented and defended. Blending meditation, storytelling and poetry, Meg Avon shares her journey from wild swimmer to the UK's first River Bride, and from personal ritual to international Rights of Nature advocacy. It closes with readings from her poetry collection My Avon and a proposal both playful and serious: could World Water Day also become World Water Wedding Day?

Anxious about the future of farming? Participants prepare dinner with herbs and vegetables from a regenerative queer feminist farm in Brandenburg, exchanging knowledge about mitigating droughts, biodiversity loss and unpredictable weather while cooking a vegan, locally sourced feast together. From drawing on the collective local richness of "waste products" to exploring crops new to the region and noticing water in all its forms, the workshop offers hopeful approaches to growing food in times of climate emergency.

How might a river participate in decisions that define its own future? The Nature Consultation Field Guide, developed at the EU Policy Lab, offers practical methods for bringing more-than-human perspectives into collective decision-making. In small groups, participants test and adapt its tools by exploring how a river might be consulted as a stakeholder rather than treated as an object of management. The Field Guide is treated as an evolving prototype: through experimentation and critical reflection, participants help make its methods more practical, more honest and more responsive to the complexities of representing nature — contributing to an ongoing conversation about how public institutions, including the European Commission, might one day learn to listen differently.

From Mar Menor to the Ouse, from the Loire to the Oder, calls for the rights and legal personhood of aquatic ecosystems are being heard across the world. Immersing themselves in this aquatic landscape, participants swim along the currents of water body stewardship and more-than-human governance, comparing, sharing and mapping practices and lessons learned from movements for water body rights in Europe and beyond.

This performative workshop explores how multisensory engagement — imagery, sound and scent — can become a tool for reconnecting with bodies of water, and with the deep sea in particular. Participants move through the space as memories emerge through embodiment and sensory stimulation, opening onto a reflection on "the algorithm of violence": the systematic, cumulative destruction of natural ecosystems, and the question of where meaningful change can begin. In the second part, participants work with text and drawing to give the sea, rivers and water a voice in the debate, developing a common language and new ways of joining forces with the more-than-human.

The Diplomatic Suitcase is a multimedia, portable installation that unfolds into a living exhibition — literally a suitcase transformed into a meeting space, carrying the identities of participating water bodies wherever it travels. This workshop asks how to expand its reach and deepen the way the Confluence shares its research, ideas and approaches. Participants explore how ideas and stories "travel" between contexts and communities, and how networks of humans, more-than-humans, objects and places connect and shape one another. Through collective attunement, imagination, synchronisation and close reading, we look at the suitcase both as a travelling exhibition and as a tool for building community. Newcomers to the network are as welcome as those already familiar with the suitcase.

For centuries rivers have been straightened, dammed and confined: floodplains disappeared, habitats were fragmented, and dynamic waterways became predictable infrastructure. What would it take to imagine a different future? Beginning with examples of successful river restoration and emerging visions for the Spree, this workshop explores how rivers can again become living habitats for fish, mussels, otters, aquatic plants and countless other species. Alongside ecological restoration, it considers how artificial intelligence might support new river imaginaries, helping visualize possibilities beyond today's landscapes. Rather than accepting rivers as they are, the workshop treats imagination itself as a practice of river restoration.

A sensory and critical experience in which immersion in sound reveals the tension between fascination with the ocean and extractivist violence. Visitors descend into the twilight of a marine microcosm; with a shell pressed to the ear, the sea becomes audible. The installation invites immersion in this soothing presence while casting a critical eye on deep-sea mining, an emerging industry whose promoters sweep us along through a techno-seductive rhetoric justifying the colonisation of this unspoilt area. Throughout, it returns to the deep-sea organisms, currents and sediments — our fellow travellers, in their element.

All over the world we leave traces of plastic behind, even in the Spree. Working with friends, colleagues and passersby, the project fished plastic out of the river using nets and recorded underwater sounds. The collected objects were transformed into cyanotype banners on fabric, accompanied by a sound installation that serves as a reminder to protect our rivers.

The first Confluence publication — a special issue from Ca' Foscari University Venice with 15 artistic, activist and academic essays by members of the network — available for browsing throughout the day, alongside further resources and research material shared by the network.