Have we met? humans and hon-humans on common groundHave we met? humans and hon-humans on common ground

In line with this year's UABB main theme 'Urban Cosmologies', Have we met? promotes new ways of understanding our planet as a shared space for plants, microbes, humans, and other animals. The exhibition was developed as the official Dutch contribution to the 23rd Triennale Milano and opened in July of 2022. Both condensed and expanded, Have we met? will be shown at Shenzhen's Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture from 25 November to 25 February 2023.

If design can help us to counter the ongoing ecological devastation of the earth, and can support the cultivation of mutually supportive relations between humans and non-humans, this should inform not only the cultural imagination, but also governmental policies, legal frameworks, and broader social infrastructures.

The Working on Common Ground conference takes its starting point in Have we met?, the Dutch contribution to the 23rd Triennale Milano. In Working on common ground, Het Nieuwe Instituut, who put the exhibition together, collaborates with cheFare, agency for cultural transformation from Milan. The conference investigates the Dutch and Italian environments to discover both overlapping characteristics and location-specific aspects of two ecological realities and explores the potential for fostering multispecies communities.

The Working on common ground workshops explore the sensitivities, organisational tactics and larger scale strategies required to foster multispecies communities and societies.

Each Detour Guide brings their unique perspective as a dancer, teacher or designer to these hour-long tours one Sunday every month. In collaboration with the Triennale di Milano, Het Nieuwe Instituut expands its Detours to include local Milanese makers trained by the Dutch team.