10.06.2026
19:00
LETʼS TALK THE EXHIBITION: Soil & Water – Online conversation in English with Johan Thom, Jessica Ostrowicz and Yevheniia Havrylenko
This special episode of the online conversations Letʼs Talk the Exhibition is dedicated to the artistic research and exhibition project Soil & Water, located in the heart of the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, and features artists participating in the project.
Soil & Water was developed collaboratively by Prof. Johan Thom (Pretoria), Assoc. Prof. Dr Başak Şenova (Vienna) and the NIROX Foundation, South Africa. Kunsthaus Dahlem is one of the project’s institutional partners.
The project examines how environmental conditions are understood, represented and addressed across different social and cultural contexts. While highlighting the interconnectedness of ecological systems and forms of knowledge, it emphasises the importance of transdisciplinary and cross-cultural exchange, with particular attention to artistic research and practice, in responding to the environmental urgencies of our time.
About the episode
Soil, Water and the Politics of Interdependence
In this episode, Yevheniia Havrylenko (Kunsthaus Dahlem) will speak with Soil & Water participating artists Johan Thom (also a co-curator of the project) and Jessica Ostrowicz about the ideas behind the project. The conversation will explore the artists’ perceptions of soil and water, and how their cultural backgrounds have shaped their artistic approaches to these themes.
Platform
Zoom event with prior registration – register HERE.
Participants
► Johan Thom is a South African artist working across sculpture, video, performance, drawing, printmaking and photography. Alongside his artistic practice, he is an academic and currently an Associate Professor in Fine Art at the University of Pretoria, and is also active as a curator.
Within the project, Johan Thom presented the work LH#1 (left heel – the weight of my body in porcelain) in the group exhibitions at NIROX Sculpture Park and ARUCAD, Cyprus, as well as the solo exhibition of drawings Water Diaries at ARUCAD, curated by Başak Şenova.
johanthom.com
Instagram: thom.johan
► Jessica Ostrowicz is a British artist and prison researcher working across installation, sculpture, drawing and film. Her practice, as described by the artist, “investigates the concept of home, understood not as a fixed or singular entity but as a shifting condition shaped by memory, longing and displacement”.
Within the project, Jessica Ostrowicz presented the film Antecedent Wayfinder in the group exhibition at NIROX Sculpture Park and eggshell drawings on paper from her ongoing series Pareidolia (Home) at ARUCAD, Cyprus.
jessicaostrowicz.com
Instagram: jessica.ostrowicz
► Yevheniia Havrylenko is a curator, historian and digital communications specialist from Ukraine, involved with Kunsthaus Dahlem since 2022. She is the initiator of the online conversations Letʼs Talk the Exhibition.
Instagram: yevheniia.havrylenko