The project
Fluid Boundaries is a collaboration project between artists-in-labs program at Zurich University of the Arts (CH), IBSA Foundation (CH), MASI Lugano (CH), VIAD at the University of Johannesburg (SA), AiRSA (SA) and Galeria Portas Vilaseca (BR).

Fluid Boundaries brings together artists, scientists, curators and indigenous knowledge conveners to explore how knowledge around water is created, shared, and valued.

At its core, the project questions the entrenched power dynamics that shape who gets to speak, who is heard, and where knowledge is believed to originate - especially between what are often seen as the "centres" and the "margins" of our planet, in terms of geography, the art scene, science institutions and ancestral knowledge.

IBSA Foundation, together with MASI Lugano, is contributing as a Swiss partner by including the programme in SciArt SwitzerlAnd
 

The call and selection of artists
In summer 2024, a public call was launched for artists to participate in a three-month residency at local scientific institutions in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Zurich. Below are the three selected artists:
 

• Kamil Hassim: Transdisciplinary artist, musician, filmmaker, based in Cape Town (South Africa).
• Carla Maldonado: Multimedia artist working primarily in experimental cinema, installations, and multi-channel projections, based in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
• Michael Azkoul: Rapper, poet, author, martial arts instructor and massage therapist, based in Geneva (Swtizerland).
   

A week of workshops at Carlo Cattaneo House

The programme continues with a week-long Third Space Residency (in October 2025) at Carlo Cattaneo House, the headquarters of IBSA Foundation in Lugano. Here, artists and the other practitioners – scientists, curators and representatives of ancestral knowledge – will meet to share the discoveries that emerged from the three regional residencies, explore collaborative practices and cross disciplinary, cultural and geographical boundaries. This phase aims to generate new perspectives and innovative approaches to our relationship with water.
 

Institutions involved

Scientific Partner Institutions: University of the Western Cape (SA), University of Johannesburg (SA), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (BR), Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (CH).

Fluid Boundaries is supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
 

About SciArt SwitzerlAnd

SciArt SwitzerlAnd is a project of IBSA Foundation for scientific research in collaboration with LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura and MASI Lugano, Museo d'arte della Svizzera italiana.

Through different event formats and digital products, SciArt SwitzerlAnd intends to cast its gaze on those artistic creations that have been transformed through interaction with scientists, discoveries and research institutions.

The public will be able to get up close to fascinating proposals born out of the encounter between multiple dimensions, and hear from the living voices of artists and scientists how very different realities influence each other.