At Carlo Cattaneo House, a meeting to take stock of Fluid Boundaries: a project in which art, science and indigenous knowledge come together over the issue of water.
Lugano, 17 February 2026 — Carlo Cattaneo House, IBSA Foundation's headquarters, hosted the closing event for Fluid Boundaries, an international project that combines art, scientific research and indigenous knowledge around an element that is both tangible and symbolic: water.
Following the artists’ residencies at scientific institutions, the Third Space Residency at Carlo Cattaneo House and the event at MASI (Museum of Art of Italian Switzerland) on 30 October, the evening brought together participants and partners in the programme, along with a group of selected observers, offering a final opportunity for reflection. A chance to focus on experiences, results and future perspectives with the direct involvement of the public.
Fluid Boundaries: an international project involving Switzerland, Brazil and South Africa
Fluid Boundaries is an international project supported by Pro Helvetia and developed as part of SciArt SwitzerlAnd, which is an IBSA Foundation initiative realised in partnership with MASI Lugano.
It involves partners and participants from Switzerland, Brazil and South Africa and originated out of the experience of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) Artists-in-Labs programme. Artists, scientists, curators and experts on indigenous knowledge worked around a common theme: water, the types of knowledge relating to it and the power dynamics that influence its management at regional level.
To achieve this, the project evolved during months of residencies and collaborations at major research institutes in Switzerland, Brazil and South Africa, in which artists and scientists worked side by side, bringing together methods, languages and different perspectives.
A format that reflects the spirit of the project
The meeting on 17 February employed a horizontal and participatory approach, consistent with the Fluid Boundaries working method. The evening began with an open discussion, mediated by Irène Hediger, director of the Artists-in-Labs programme, and Flurin Fischer, programme researcher, in dialogue with the audience present.
On the lower floor of Carlo Cattaneo House there were video installations and a wall devoted to the project’s processes and working methods, to remind us that, in Fluid Boundaries, thought is never purely theoretical: it takes shape through the body, objects, relationships. An aperitif was served at the end, which extended the discussion in that informal way that often creates space for authenticity, allowing what really matters to emerge.
The Third Space Residency and the final event on 30 October
In October 2025, Carlo Cattaneo House hosted the Third Space Residency: an intensive, week-long residency in Lugano.
It was a pivotal moment: when months of long-distance exchanges became a genuine collaboration involving workshops, discussions, heated debate and attempts to construct a common language.
That work was first seen publicly at the closing event on 30 October at MASI Lugano, organised with IBSA Foundation and the Artists-in-Labs programme. An event conceived as a "Walkabout", with stations and various key moments: performances, readings, installations and videos to give the public not a "single outcome", but rather all the complexity of a journey involving twists and turns and different perspectives.
The "third space" and the hierarchy of knowledge
The question of the hierarchy of knowledge powerfully emerged as central to the event on 17 February. The residency in Ticino, which was selected because it was "new" to all participants, also served as a collective location: no one was "at home", which created the conditions for a more honest, more open, more fruitful outcome.
Within the Fluid Boundaries project itself, the importance of a third space became clear: a context that is intentionally neutral, in which scientific, artistic and indigenous knowledge can engage on an equal footing, discussing automatism and predominance (including Western thought when it claims to be universal).
Event outcomes
One of the most powerful themes was the value of the process compared to the result. The collaboration, with all its tensions, its openness and its moments of uncertainty, was described as the most significant part of the experience, more so than any predefined outcome. An approach that also required the institutes involved, IBSA Foundation first and foremost, to accept a level of unpredictability and to trust the collective intelligence of the group: a different way of understanding cultural planning, closer to research than to production.
One of those who had attended the residency shared this thought: "I think it should be repeated again and again in other locations”. A hope that opens up the possibility of new events and new "third spaces" in which art, science and communities can continue to influence each other and raise new questions.
