Who has the right to water and land?

Who owns water and land? What are we passing on to future generations? And what rights does the environment itself have? Rivers, mountains, and forests are increasingly being granted rights to help protect endangered ecosystems. But who—or what—actually has which rights and responsibilities in this context?

In a dialogue-based tour of the current special exhibition, students explore global issues of heritage and property, extractivism, and protection of nature. They delve into questions of water and land rights and examine them from various perspectives. The tour draws connections from the Spree River in Berlin to the Amazonas in Brazil, from coal mining in the Lausitz to cobalt mining in the Congo, and from potential development of the Tempelhofer Feld to questions of land rights and coexistence in other regions of the world.

In the creative part of the workshop, students work with recycled and natural materials, explore water and earth as a dynamic network, and create their own visions of the future using 3D collages. The materials used in the collages are subsequently recycled, but the students’ work can be photographed as a memory and starting point and for further projects.