How do we express care for a river? What stories flow through wetlands, forests, and farmlands — and who tells them?

Interwoven Waters is an exhibition that brings together photography, textiles, drawings, and stories created through participatory workshops in Kenya and Uganda. Guided by artists Liberatha Alibalio, Sarah Nakisanze, Camille Wekesa, and the NAAM Festival collective — and co-created with local communities — the works explore how art can hold space for environmental memory, cultural identity, and shared action.

Rather than finished artefacts, these pieces offer fragments of ongoing dialogues: about climate and conservation, about daily life, and belonging. Made collaboratively and with care, the works will return to their communities after the exhibition closes.

The exhibition is part of a larger project at the intersection of environmental research and creative practice, tracing how grassroots knowledge and artistic expression can shape ecological futures.

Interwoven Waters opens with a public programme on 6 June, including a symposium (14:00–16:30) on participatory and artistic solutions to environmental challenges in the Lake Victoria Basin, and a documentary film screening (16:30) capturing voices from across the region — from environmentalists and artists to farmers and fishermen. The exhibition launches at 17:00 and remains open for one week.

Curated by the Department of Water and Climate (VUB), this inaugural exhibition invites viewers to see art not only as representation, but as relationship — a way of listening to the landscapes we live with.