International Visitors Programme
As part of the Nieuwe Instituut’s International Visitors Programme, Sonic Acts invited Astrida Neimanis and Faiza Ahmad Kahn to the Netherlands for the Sonic Acts Biennale 2024 (2 February – 23 March). Astrida Neimanis, a leading figure in environmental science, gave a workshop, Weathering Together, on 22 February and a lecture, Holdfast (Learning Feeling), on 24 February. Faiza Ahmad Khan, an Indian documentary filmmaker, attended the world premiere of her film with Susan Shupli, Moving Ice, at the Eye Film Museum on 5 March. The filmmakers then discussed the film and its themes with moderator Mirna Belina.
The Weathering Together workshop at Zone2Source in the Amstelpark linked sensory experiences with changing weather patterns, emphasising that weather is more than just a meteorological phenomenon. Neimanis presented weather as a shared, affective experience shaped by power structures, with lasting and pervasive effects in a changing climate. Using text cards, participants were asked to ‘feel’ the weather in different ways.
During the Sonic Acts symposium at the Stedelijk Museum, lectures, talks and presentations explored experimental and innovative practices, both academic and artistic, that respond to the climate crisis. Astrida Neimanis’ lecture, Holdfast (Learning Feeling), explored the complex emotions that accompany extinction and climate disasters. Using specific examples, she explored how people experience their emotions more intensely and recognise more variations in their feelings due to the uncertainty that extinction and climate disasters bring. Neimanis asked concrete questions about how different species (human and non-human) can support each other in times of crisis, and how we can connect effectively despite limitations in our social interactions.
Moving Ice, by Susan Schuppli and Faiza Ahmad Kahn, had its world premiere at the Sonic Acts Biennale on 5 March. The documentary explores the transformation of ice from a natural resource to a commercial commodity. Beginning with the natural formation of glaciers, the film shifts its focus to the early 19th century, when colonialism and capitalism gave rise to the the ‘ice trade’. This trade shipped natural ice from glaciers and lakes around the world, first as ballast for ships and later as valuable cargo, often using slave labour. After the film, Mirna Belina talked to the makers about their research into the ‘ice archives’, which further reveals this fascinating, hidden history.
Astrida Neimanis is a cultural theorist working at the intersection of feminism and environmental change. Her research focuses on bodies, water and weather, and how they can help us reimagine justice, care, responsibility and relationship in a time of climate catastrophe.
Faiza Ahmad Khan is a Mumbai-based documentary filmmaker whose best-known work is Supermen of Malegaon, a documentary about the passion for filmmaking of the people of Malegaon, India.