River Cities in Stockholm

Venue: Vrak Museum of Wrecks, Djurgårdsstrand 17, 115 21 Stockholm
Date: 14 October 2025

Intercult and River Cities Network invite you to an inspiring afternoon filled with creative workshops, thought-provoking presentations, and artistic encounters in Stockholm.

This gathering is for everyone who believes our current development models—driving environmental, social, economic, and health crises—must change. It brings together cultural workers, artists, urban activists, policymakers, scientists, planners, environmentalists, and all those seeking new, more ecosystem-like ways of thinking and acting.

Culture is at the heart of this shift: enabling empathy, cooperation, and belonging—the foundations for reimagining rivers, cities, and futures.

Programme

13.00 – 13.10
Welcome – Iwona Preis, CEO of Intercult, Former president & Co-founder of River Cities Network, Sweden

13.10 – 14.40
Germaine Sanders, Architect & Artist, Netherlands – Workshop
“floating value & future flow drawing as a way of thinking”
Why drawing? How to draw loose thoughts? What makes a strong idea? What and how to communicate?
This practical workshop will focus on engaging and stimulating visual thinking and enhancing creative collaboration. Through a series of simple drawing exercises and expert facilitation, attendees from different backgrounds will develop clear overview of thoughts. Showing, arranging and sharing this visual thinking build effective insight skills, stronger ideas, and form valuable connections.
Drawing as a way of thinking is a PyB nomadAcademy® method for professionals, students, and anyone interested in clarity in complexity and imagination, this workshop will span one and a half hours. Please, experience fresh perspectives, structure loose thoughts to build a shared red line together, and leave feeling motivated to communicate and to move on.

14.40 – 14.55
Coffee Break

14.55 – 15.45
Robert Alagjozovski, Cultural Strategist and ECOC Expert, Trainer, and Intercultural Policy Advisor, North Macedonia – Workshop
“Counter-strike river apocalypse”
In this interactive educational workshop the participants would develop alternative scenarios as a creative response to identified disastrous riverfront developments in Europe. Starting with a short presentation of different case studies of riverfronts gone bad,
through the methodology of playroles and gamification the workshop would explore the different positions, procedures, decision-makings, civic engagement and how they could influence the processes developing in desired eco-friendly and climate-responsible directions.

15.45 – 16.00
Break

16.00-16.25
Lia Ghilardi, Urban strategist, Cultural planner, United Kingdom
“Reimagining Urban Ecosystems through Culture”
We face a polycrisis—environmental, social, economic, and health. Old frameworks no longer work. To move forward, we need ecosystem-like thinking, not extractive or mechanical models.
Culture is key. It enables empathy, cooperation, and belonging. That’s why this moment calls on cultural workers, artists, urban activists, policymakers, and environmentalists—to shape the conditions for real change.This talk explores how regenerative economic principles can guide the renewal of riverfront cities, turning them into resilient, thriving ecosystems. Culture plays a pivotal role in this process: as a mediator of change, it fosters community participation, redefines relationships with heritage and nature, and nurtures new narratives of belonging. By integrating cultural practices into regenerative systems, riverfronts can become laboratories of innovation where economic vitality, ecological health, and social cohesion.

16.25 – 16.45
Magdalena Zakrzewska-Duda, Cultural operator, Senior Specialist on Strategic Partnerships, BSCC Gdansk, Poland
“Ways of Working with Culture on Rivers and Waterfronts”

This presentation aims to show various approaches to carry out cultural activities on rivers through good practices from around Europe. There are organisations (like River//Cities) dedicated to culture on waterfronts. Some cultural events are organised within international or local co-operation projects, some are done more spontaneously. Culture on waterfronts supports ecological campaigns, but is also a tool used for developing social integration and building up social resilience. Whatever the means, whatever the aims, cultural animators, artists and other creatives in Europe do a lot to connect local communities to the waters they live on.

16.45 – 17.15
Jenny Marketou, Artist GR, NY & Bernd Herger, Chairman of River // Cities, Austria
“In the Belly of a Garden”
A site specific art work conceived as a sculptural environment which brings soil and water together and pays homage to the waterbody and the wetlands of the Danube River, the River of Vienna. It is anchored above the man-made lake in Aspern, Seestadt and is in dialogue with the park-like landscape of the sleek artificial architecture of Seestadt, Europe’s largest urban development project in Vienna’s 22nd district (Donaustadt) built on an old airfield. The artwork was created as part of the project Turning The Tide in collaboration with River Cities.

17.15 – 17.45
Eva Stache, Architect, Netherlands
“Water, the unknown friend”
Water is omnipresent, though we usually only see it when it’s a nuisance. When it rains down on our necks, when it overflows, or when it’s absent altogether. We’ll embark on a journey to places where water is visible or invisible, and together we’ll discover our unknown relationship with water.

17.45 – 18.00
Final reflections and future steps- Dr Liz Gardiner, Cultural planner, Scotland

The program is still a subject for changes

PLEASE NOTE: The event will be held in English

Registration

Please register via this link: https://forms.gle/VMKXDhVsK1gyjFMv9

Participation is free of charge, but spaces are limited.