Trained in design, architecture and critical heritage studies, I navigate these intersecting fields through practice-based research, moving fluidly through temporalities and geographies. In 2013, I initiated The Imaginary Agency as a creative platform focusing on the intersections of urban life, environmental justice, and the transformative power of (collective) imagination. Collaborations in Sweden, Mexico, Colombia, Belgium, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Netherlands have deeply inspired me, as these showcased the expansion of imaginaries set in motion through creative interventions and affective methodologies. I seek the openings to repair troubled and disrupted relations across generations, landscapes, and more-than-human lifeworlds.
Portrait ~ Jacqueline Fuijkschot
Living with Water: Agency, Materiality, Narratives
"Living With Water: Agency, Materiality, Narratives" is a series of online conversations from scholars, artists and thinkers across the world and beyond disciplinary boundaries, in May-June 2025. In my 2 June talk "Reimagining the Shimmering Agency of Water" I will reflect on the aquatic agency that emerges in collaborative creative approaches.
Fossil Free Nation
The poster and essay "A hint of fugitive Times, within and beyond the fences" are now part of the online exhibition "Fossil Free Nation". The essay is an adapted version of a chapter from my 2023 PhD dissertation “Leaving Dry Land: Water, Heritage and Imaginary Agency”.
Design with ~ Art Collart.
Leaving Dry Land: Water, Heritage and Imaginary Agency
Dissertation defence in conversation with opponent David C. Harvey (Århus University) and examination board members Meike Schalk (KTH Stockholm), Þóra Pétursdóttir (University of Oslo) and Robert Willim (Lund University).
Imagining the In-Between of Land and Water
This performance-lecture presents an imaginary journey following waters, while wild brews, perfumes, and hydrolats bring the narrative alive to all the senses and activate long-term aquatic memories.
With ~ Sjamme van de Voort, Maidie van den Bos and more-than-human bodies holding the waters from Jotunheimen to Lake Vänern, along the river Göta into the sea of Kattegat and to the North Sea.
On the occasion of ~ the 2022 International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam Waterweek.
Listening to the voice of water
Anne van Strien invited me to talk about water as a connecting element with many forms of expression and a space for imagination in which great stories can arise through space and time. The conversation is part of a podcast series ‘Listening to the voice of water’ (in Dutch) which will be presented in a watery conversation at the Embassy of Water during the Dutch Design Week.
En la manana te recogí en una gota en mi dedo
While the publication of "This morning, I caught you in a drop on my finger" has already been celebrated in Rotterdam, it also has to find its way back to Mexico City. Invited by Jaell Dúran Herrera, I will give a lecture on the book, the thoughts behind it and the methodology of investigating urban waters that it proposes. This presentation is part of the Bifurcations and Vortices lecture series at UAM Xochimilco.
Safe Harbour
In Belgrade, I will immerse myself in conversations on inhabiting the city in coexistence—on what it means to be and stay human in relations of care across differences. The Institute for Urban Politics set up the Safe Harbour one-month residency as a space for exchange and I hope to learn from the commoning practices of the ‘Don’t Let Belgrade Drown’ protest movement, in which activism and art play essential roles.
This morning, I caught you in a drop on my finger
To celebrate that the book “En la mañana te recogí en una gota en mi dedo” is ready to start a further life of its own, I organized my ideal Friday drink. In the book, short stories, images, exchanges and experiences from the Netherlands, Mexico and Sweden, together form a bigger narrative about the city in time and space—and Water that flows through it all. In this time of climate change, what can Water tell us about hope for the future?
De Waterdragers
Performance in three acts.
Act 1 (De Bouw Festival):
Reading the eco-fiction ‘Journey to Atlan’, written by Mauricio Martínez.
Act 2 (De Bouw Festival):
Constructing a life raft with Sander Huijzer.
Act 3 (Duizel in het Park):
Water-gathering performance co-created and realised with Ilse Evers, with a guest performance by Sjamme van de Voort. Maidie van den Bos distilled syrups out of flora and rainwater I gathered during a three-day walking journey crossing Mexico City.
F.I.L.M.
Every Friday evening in May, we will host F.I.L.M. at PRIMAL's rooftop garden, showing movies in which water is a protagonist, followed by a conversation with experts from different fields of knowledge—such as urban planning, philosophy, law, arts, economy and activism. Drinks and food are served directly from the garden.
We will never know how to tell this story
Collective art installation as part of the Club Interbellum debate program and collective exhibition “Connecting Cuba #1. Cuba, what’s next?” in De Balie, Amsterdam.
With ~ David Ortiz Juan.
A drop of water on a hot plate
Thanks to the support from the Fund for Creative Industries I will engage in socio-spatial research into the water infrastructure in Mexico City, which is under pressure because of urban development. I want to visualize the social consequences of this spatial process and broach the topic of the city's complex water issues among the local more-than-human population.
Urban Think and Do Tank
Pienso y Hago Ciudad. In an active learning space, we explore the possible impacts of regenerative urbanism and the transition to a radically sustainable urban future in Guatemala City. The local context of the neighbourhood La Morera serves as an experimental place for new strategies of regenerative urban design.
HORTUS Kleinpolderpleinpark
Op zaterdag 16 april 2016 wordt het Rotterdamse Kleinpolder voor één dag een stadspark. Samen met Yvonne Beelen geef ik uiting aan de wens om het Kleinpolderplein terug te geven aan het stadsleven en de natuur. Kruipend en ongewenste botanica krijgen een nieuw verhaal, vertrekkend van alchemistische kwaliteiten in het omzetten van water, aarde en zonlicht in een breed scala aan bijzondere stoffen.
Wildgroei
Zijn wij met onze bouwwoede en betondrang een bedreiging voor de natuur of bieden deze bouwwerken een uniek podium voor wildgroei? Wegbermen, donkere ruimtes onder viaducten, braakliggende grond. Juist daar waar de mens liever niet komt ontstaan plekken waar cultuur en natuur weelderig met elkaar meegroeien. Pak tijdens Duizel een wandelstok mee en wordt een heuse bermtoerist.
Atlas Subjetivo de Colombia
Exhibition Subjective Atlas of Colombia. The subjective atlas book series allows decoding daily realities from a participant’s point of view. Over 60 artists, designers and observers joined the project, driven by the purpose of depicting a poetic map that would trace, challenge and vindicate what it means to live in Colombia.