1 March 2026 – 31 October 2027
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 will 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 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, 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 will expand this field, embracing instability as a state of transformation. It will engage with seismography as a physical and metaphorical method and, by juxtaposing contemporary and historical artworks, it will reveal 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.
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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.
