ISLANDS OF CHANGE: Oceanic Refractions (installation)

AM Kanngieser and Mere Nailatikau present their multisensory audio-visual work Oceanic Refractions. An immersive installation featuring testimonies of Fijian, i-Kiribati and Papua New Guinean elders on kinship, self-determination and care in the face of global ecocide. In hyper-detailed soundscape compositions we hear field recordings of the reefs of Fiji, the oceans and mangroves of Kiribati, and the shorelines of Papua New Guinea’s Duke of York Islands.

Islands of Change confronts the polycrisis – planetary collapse, genocide, war, tech-fascism, and growing authoritarianism – that increasingly leaves us at a loss in the face of the challenges it presents. Co-curated by Julian Rieken with Residenties in Utrecht and Gaudeamus, this long-term initiative asks: How do we reclaim our ‘response-ability’? How do we mobilize our (hyper)local ‘islands’ of artistic action to counteract rigid hierarchies, and in so doing, forge vibrant currents of solidarity? Click here for the full programme of Islands of Change.

Following the program at Gaudeamus, Julian Rieken will join a roundtable on 4 October 2025, organized by Instituto Cervantes, where three leading scientists – María Cristina Piñeiro, Laura Villanueva, and Sjoerd Groeskamp – will share their insights on the impact of climate change on oceans and biodiversity. Julian Rieken will place these scientific perspectives in an artistic framework and invite the audience to reflect on how art can contribute to new visions of our shared ecological future. This collaboration between Gaudeamus and Instituto Cervantes, which explores this theme, will continue at least through 2026.

This exhibition is part of the Ulysses Platform, co-funded by the European Union.