N.C.L. NATURAL CONTRACT LAB Body of repair

Natural Contract Lab is an artistic research project, which draws from an ecology of reciprocal care and  dialogues with bodies of water undergoing deep ecological transformation.

For the gathering in NTGent, “Rivers confluence”, you are invited to a one-day walk practice, where riverine ecosystems are mapped, sensorially engaged with, and performed, through collective gestures of reciprocal care in conversation with local communities.

Starting from NTGent with recognizing the harm in a circle of river rights followed by a walk towards the disappearance of the Lieve Rive. This riverine walk invites participants to take part in a process of regenerative activism developed in conversation with local witnesses and the river.. In this river walk we become witnessing bodies that listen to the ecosystem that surrounds us.

Natural Contract Lab is an artistic research project, which draws from an ecology of reciprocal care and dialogues with bodies of water undergoing deep ecological transformation. Its visual presence is hybrid and unfolds differently in response to each river under survey.

* This event starts at 10 am and ends at 4 pm. We kindly request the audience to partake in the entire event.

Natural Contract Lab was founded in 2021 by the artist Maria Lucia Cruz Correia in collaboration with a  multidisciplinary group composed by Marine Calmet (environmental jurist), Brunilda Pali (restorative justice), Evanne Nowak (river grief), Lode Vranken (architecture/philosophy), Vinny Jones (scenography), David Buchan (soil ecology/fertility), Mark Požlep (documentation), Margarida Mendes (researcher/sonic guidance).