Shaken Grounds: Art as Seismography
is a transdisciplinary project exploring the fragility and resilience of life on unstable terrain. It combines artistic research
and practice to foster dialogue among artists, cultural workers, scientists and institutions from Austria, Italy, Iceland
and Croatia. These geographies form the basis for examining how seismic conditions, literal and metaphorical, shape human
and more-than-human experiences of environmental and social precarity.
The project builds on and continues the FWF PEEK project Shaken Grounds. Seismography of Precarious Presences (Grant
DOI: 10.55776/AR780), conducted by the core researchers Nikolaus Gansterer, Mariella Greil, Peter Kozek and Lucie Strecker,
in close collaboration with Victor Jaschke and Werner Moebius.
Shaken
Grounds: Art as Seismography connects micro-organisations, universities and large-scale institutions: the Centro Itard / Volcanic
Attitude Festival, the Iceland University of the Arts, the University of Applied Arts Vienna and, as lead partner, the Museum
of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. A think-tank, workshops, on-site research and shared curation will culminate in a collaborative
final exhibition and symposium in 2027.
Artistic engagement
with planetary systems has gained momentum, but human-induced seismicity remains underexplored. Shaken Grounds expands this
field, embracing instability as a state of transformation. It engages with seismography as both a physical and metaphorical
method and, by juxtaposing contemporary and historical artworks, reveals the evolution of cultural and artistic responses
to scientific, philosophical and societal ruptures, and shifting terrestrial and social conditions.
At the project’s core is a process of knowledge-sharing, co-curation and artistic co-production, encouraging transdisciplinary
methodological innovation and the cross-border dissemination of research. Shaken Grounds strengthens international artistic
cooperation while fostering the sustainability of cultural institutions and independent practitioners. It advances exchange,
shared responsibility and artistic approaches to resilience, responding critically and imaginatively to the ecological, political
and existential uncertainties of our time. Schedule of main project
activities:
- Experimental setup and think-tank in Vienna, May 4 –
6, 2026
- Gibellina, Italian Capital of Contemporary Art, September 3 – 6, 2026
- Volcanic Attitude Festival, September 25 – 28, 2026
- Exhibition and symposium at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, in 2027 (tbd)
Project Lead:
Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb,
Croatia
Project Partners:
University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria
Iceland University of the
Arts, Reykjavík, Iceland
Centro Itard Lombardia / Volcanic Attitude Festival,
Italy
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed
are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education
and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
