Workshop with Renata Berta
At the By Design and by Disaster Conference
May 2025
University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
Bolzano emerges from intersections. It is within these encounters that it becomes present, recognized, and identified. This workshop focused on the confluence of Bolzano’s two rivers — rivers that have carved valleys over time and meet to form a new body, shaped by what they carry and the paths they trace across the land.
As humans, we have sought to impose our measures, rhythms, and rules, attempting to tame the rivers and mitigate what we perceive as destructive forces, such as floods. Yet, in doing so, we forget about the natural cycles that govern these changes, rarely recognizing the slow-moving forces that transport energies and rhythms from the mountains.
This workshop engaged participants in embodied practices and the creation of assemblages to explore ways to connect with different non-human actors that contribute to this shared habitat and biological cycle.
During the first half of the workshop, participants engaged in practices of sensing, recognizing, and collecting—exploring the diverse actors within the Talvera and Isarco rivers’ confluences. Following this process, participants were invited to design and build interactive devices, performances, or assemblages that engage with the non-human actors identified, with our bodies as active participants in the system.
About the facilitators
Renata Berta is an Argentinian artist, architect, and researcher. She holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work explores the entanglements between bodies, materials, and dynamic landscapes, engaging with site-specific and embodied methodologies. She is particularly interested in transcalar processes, more-than-human interactions, and the agency of materials in shaping environments.
Anna Tudos is a Hungarian curator and social researcher. Her work activates contemporary artistic positions concerned with physical and mental health, such as the social entanglements of urban playgrounds, macro-narratives’ influence on identity formation, and the extent of human agency in the agribusiness food industry. Anna’s projects develop following a participatory and place-based approach, considering human and non-human actors’ needs.
