Wetlands emerge where water encounters land. Activists recording endangered migratory bird sounds in mudflats, people dancing bare feet in wetlands, soil scientists sticking tools in the peat, farmers draining peatlands for agriculture, artists putting their hands in marshes.

Muddy Measures: When Wetlands and Heritage Converse, is a project that explores how heritage perspectives reshape our understanding of wetlands and, in turn, how wetlands influence the way we think about heritage.

In wetlands, different interests and forms of knowledge encounter one another. Measurement is central to both heritage and wetlands—whether in attributing value, defining an endangered species, or justifying conservation efforts. Muddy Measures: When Wetlands and Heritage Converse examines the relationship between wetlands and heritage. The exhibition explores how different layers of soil retain memories, activate the present and shape potential futures.

The phrase “muddy measures” is inherently contradictory. Measurements seek to make something comprehensible and comparable, often for the purpose of research, but also for exploitation or control. However, the term “muddy” evokes opacity and ambiguity. Combining the two terms allows us to explore the paradoxes that emerge from singular understandings of these particular ecosystems, to trace different ways of relating to wetlands over time, and to discuss how varied measurement methods have been used to different ends. These paradoxes and questions echo throughout three specific case studies in Berlin-Brandenburg, Patagonia, and Korea’s west coast, the accompanying programme, as well as in monthly changing guest exhibitions, dedicated to Berlin-based research projects.

Muddy Measures is a collaborative project initiated by inherit. heritage in transformation and developed in conversation with wetlands researchers, artists, curators, and environmental activists across geographies and times.

Contributors: Anahí Herrera Cano (CONICET-UBA), Ayelen Fiori (Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco), Charlett Wenig (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces), Daniel Hengst, Dongpil Oh, Heejung Jung, Seongsil Lee and Seungjun Oh (Saemangeum Citizen Ecological Investigation Group), Doohee Oh (Peace Wind), Eugenia Tomasini, Clara Tomasini and Milagros Córdova (Centro MATERIA IIAC-UNTREF), Yun Hwang, Iva Rešetar (Matters of Activity), Juana del Carmen Aigo (INIBIOMA-CONICET), Jutta Zeitz (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – HU), Laurentiu Constantin (HU), Léa Perraudin (Matters of Activity), Lucia Braemer (HU), Lucy Norris (Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin), Magdalena Buchczyk (HU), Moorarchiv (HU), Paula Vogt (University of Potsdam), Rosa Blens (HU), Saemangeum Citizen Ecological Investigation Group, and Teresa Pereda.

Location

TA T 1st floor, R.102 and R.111

Image Credits

Banner on top: Teresa Pereda Working on Land Prints Series. ©Teresa Pereda
Image further down: Laurentiu Constantin measuring a soil core sample in Bieselfließ, Germany, 2024