As part of the international and interdisciplinary symposium "Frictions on Landscapes: Knowledge Generation and Artistic Research on Human-Environment Relations", Prof. Christiane Heibach will speak on Friday, 19 June at 4 pm on the topic of "Wounded Landscapes".
Abstract: In fine arts, landscapes are usually staged either as 'tamed' by humans or as superhumanly sublime natural phenomena. Landscape aesthetics thus harbour ambivalences that lie between the poles of man's powerlessness on the one hand and his maximum creative capacity on the other. At present, we are often confronted with landscapes that take up this field of tension, but reinterpret it in view of the diverse ecological problems. Edward Burtynsky's photographs, for example, stage the violation of the earth's surface through the targeted extraction of resources. They thus carry on the ambivalences of historical landscape stagings, but reweigh them: from the power of nature to its vulnerability, from the landscape as human-careful cultivation to its brutal and ruthless destruction. The lecture discusses the aesthetic and ecological implications of such re-evaluations.
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The symposium will take place on 19 and 20 June 2026 in Regensburg as part of the exhibition and research project "FRICTIONS ON LANDSCAPES - Everyday Life, Environment and Global Change. From Regensburg to the Alps to Portugal and Iran" and is dedicated to landscapes as conflict-laden spaces between nature conservation, property, resource economics and ecological crises.
The focus is on questions of landscape as a social, political and aesthetic space of knowledge as well as artistic research, experimental ethnography and transdisciplinary methods of knowledge production.
With contributions from anthropology, geography, media studies, art and urban research, the symposium brings together scientists, artists and interested parties to open up new perspectives on human-environment relationships.
In addition to lectures and discussions, an extensive supporting programme awaits you:
The exhibition "Frictions on Landscapes" in the Städtische Galerie im Leeren Beutel brings together artistic positions by Caterina Rossato, Mahroo Movahedi, Andrina Jörg and Barbara Wimmer-Bulin.
The works deal with societal frictions, landscapes of memory, extractivism and the tensions between nature, the city and the use of resources.
The experimental laboratory space "Negotiating the Future" is also being created at M26, where research, art and the public can interact.
Installations, ethnographic works and participatory formats invite visitors to explore urban and ecological issues together.
The programme also includes
- Walk labs on the perception and appropriation of urban spaces with Kathrin Dröppelmann and Dr Lorenza Manfredi,
- workshops on landscape, language and memory with Arati Uttur and Caterina Rossato,
- as well as the augmented reality project "In d'Stod nei - Urban Storyworlds", which visualises digital and virtual narratives in urban space.
*Vernissage:
19. June 2026 | 7 pm
Municipal gallery in the Leerer Beutel*
*Afterparty:
19. June 2026 | from 20:30
M26 Regensburg*
Venue:
Städtische Galerie im Leeren Beutel & M26, Regensburg
Free admission - no registration required.
Further information and the complete programme: https://regensburg.de/frictionsonlandscapes (external link, opens in a new window)