About this Event
On November 25, we will celebrate the opening of the exhibition Diplomatic Suitcase, a multimedia installation exploring the representation of European water bodies, together with their artists Leon Lapa Pereira and Jakob Kukula. You are cordially invited to a rich program featuring a workshop, discussions, and the audiovisual performance Into the Currents. The exhibition will be on view at the Goethe-Institut until February 12, 2027.
About the Diplomatic Suitcase
The Diplomatic Suitcase is a mobile multimedia exhibition that brings together stories, sounds, films and 'narrative objects' from European aquatic landscapes. As a symbolic and physical embodiment of the European initiative Confluence of European Water Bodies, it unites the voices, stories and concerns of rivers, lakes, lagoons, seas and other bodies of water. The installation unfolds from a suitcase into a multifaceted exhibition and invites us to view water not merely as a natural resource or a backdrop to human history, but as an active part of a shared network of relationships.
Workshop: How can Water Diplomacy spark your relationship with water?
Starting with this question, the workshop opens a space to explore our personal and collective relationships with water.
Through a guided vision journey, we will follow the currents of water narratives emerging from activist collectives, bringing them into conversation with our own experiences and stories. Moving between personal reflections, collective imaginaries, and political realities, we will explore processes of unfolding and (re)folding. From accreditation processes and legal frameworks to diplomatic conversations, we will navigate different dimensions of Water Diplomacy through creative practices such as origami and storytelling.
Guided by Leon Lapa Pereira and Jakob Kukula, the workshop offers a meandering path into the themes of the opening Diplomatic Suitcase exhibition, inviting participants to discover new ways of relating to, listening to, and engaging with water.
Performance: Into the Currents
Performed live by Jakob Kukula, Into the Current is an audiovisual performance set tracing a sonic journey through the states of water from a single drop, through puddle, river and raging torrent, to the open sea. Working with field recordings and water sounds as compositional material, the piece weaves image and sound into an immersive sensory experience. Among the recordings are sounds gathered from the very water bodies represented in the Diplomatic Suitcase, grounding the performance in the living voices of the rivers and waters it speaks for.
CREDITS DIPLOMATIC SUITCASE
Artistic Direction & Design: Jakob Kukula & Leon Lapa Pereira
Graphic Design: Eva van Bemmelen & Corine Datema
Co-Production: Confluence of European Water Bodies
Commissioned: Embassy of the North Sea & TBA21 Academy
Agenda
🕑: 05:30 PM - 06:30 PM
Workshop: How can Water Diplomacy spark your relationship with water?
Host: Leon Lapa Pereira
🕑: 06:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Reception
🕑: 07:00 PM - 07:30 PM
Artist Talk
🕑: 07:40 PM - 08:00 PM
Performance: Into the Currents
Host: Jakob Kukula
Event venue & nearby stays
Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, 470 Herengracht, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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