Research project
Reimagining the Wetlands in Tigre (Argentina): Harnessing the Power of the Arts for Socio-ecological Transformation
- Start date: 1 January 2025
- End date: 30/01/25
- Value: £9810
- Partners and collaborators: Centro Cultural Casa Puente, Colectivo Ecología Política en Humedales, Juan Delgado (visual artist and filmmaker), Laura de Arbol (Multimedia artist)
- Primary investigator: Dr Maria Rovisco
- External co-investigators: Professor Lorena Verzero (University of Buenos Aires) Dr Sofia Astelarra (University of Buenos Aires)
This project seeks to harness the potential of the arts for socio-ecological transformation by fostering knowledge-exchange between academic and non-academic partners. The territory of the Delta de Tigre (Argentina) is an inhabited network of rivers and streams afflicted by socio-ecological problems and conflict (i.e., waste, climate change, gentrification, pollution, and real estate mega-enterprises). These problems and conflicts affect human interaction with the ecosystem and the functioning of the wetland. Over the years, human-non-human living conditions have degraded. The project focuses on supporting local stakeholders addressing these challenges through knowledge-exchange activities (i.e., creative workshops) that value and harness the knowledge and imagination already existing in the community for pursuing a more sustainable future for the Wetlands. It combines ethnographically inspired research, arts-based participatory approaches, and political ecology studies to uncover how community-led knowledge creation for socio-ecological transformation happens.
The project is a collaboration between the University of Leeds, the University of Buenos Aires, Gino Germani Research Institute ‒ IIGG, Centro Cultural Casa Puente (Tigre, Argentina) and La Residuoetca (Tigre, Argentina).