Global

Swissnex Window #12: Imagining Planetary Diplomacy

What if diplomacy listened to the Earth as well as to humans? Emerging from an international open call that invited young researchers, innovators, and artists from across the world, this exhibition presents visions of planetary diplomacy as a practice of care, attentive listening, and shared responsibility for life on Earth.

Imagining Planetary Diplomacy invites visitors to consider what diplomacy might become when it extends beyond the human realm to engage with the planet’s entire living fabric. In collaboration with Yuko Hasegawa, former Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and Visiting Professor at Kyoto University, the exhibition presents a curated selection of projects from the global open call NextGen: Imagining Planetary Diplomacy, showcasing diverse ways of engaging with forests, multispecies worlds, and planetary futures.

Together, the projects explore new relationships between humans, ecosystems, and more-than-human beings. Through practices of listening, care, and coexistence, they suggest how peace might be restored between humanity and the planet.

Imagining Planetary Diplomacy also serves as a space of encounter within the Planetary Embassy in Japan. Talks, workshops, and discussions unfold in dialogue with the works on view, inviting visitors to return, listen more closely, and participate in collective reflection on how we might sustain life on Earth.

Exhibited Projects

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    Description

    Imagining the Futures of Rights of Nature

    Lydia Dai, Beniamin Strzelecki, Genaro Matías Godoy González, Iqra Bano, and Pierre Mikhiel

    This interactive platform reinvents a global governance system that recognizes the voice and agency of living ecosystems within international law. Developed with experts and nature advocates, this project bridges legal innovation, foresight, and advocacy through its evolving platform. Discover alternative pathways to a future where humans and nature thrive together.

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    Description

    Museums for the More-than-Human

    Yelyzaveta Bezzub

    This installation opens a space to reconsider our relationship with nature by taking on the role of non-human entities in decision-making settings. At this negotiation table, experience our shared fragility and interdependence with the living world through an immersive audio.

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    Description

    Systems of Care in Slime Mold Structures

    Sulamith Tamborriello in collaboration with Hanna Saito

    In this installation, the artist enters into symbiosis with a slime mold culture. This trans-species collaboration investigates care and coexistence as new ways of relying on each other for our collective survival. This artistic research project is a long-term experiment reflecting on care not as a sentimental gesture but as a political, ethical, and existential practice.

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    Description

    The Spiritual Entities of the Kuikuro People

    Uryssé Kuikuro and Alekin Pazini

    This short film explores the worldview of the Kuikuro People, an Indigenous community in Brazil, where humans, spirits, and the living ecosystem are deeply intertwined. In dialogue with spiritual entities embodied in nature, discover a relationship that is grounded in respect and reciprocity.

A Word from Yuko Hasegawa

    As a curator deeply engaged in investigating the intersections of ecology and art, I’m honored to support this initiative. Over the years, I’ve witnessed how young artists, art students, and emerging curators are increasingly drawn to questions of planetary entanglement, more-than-human agency, and ecological justice.

    Yuko Hasegawa Curator. Visiting Professor at Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University, in "Curatorial Theory and Practice"; Former Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

Partners

  • Swissnex
  • Presence Switzerland

Full Program

Contact

    Project Lead

    Fiammetta Pennisi

    Head of Art-Science

    Media Contact

    Alice Rouaud

    Head of Communications
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