The FORTHEM labs form multidisciplinary networks of experts made up of university staff, students and external stakeholders – more than 500 experts are already involved. Each FORTHEM laboratory is coordinated by one of the FORTHEM partner universities.
FORTHEM is decentralised. Since the beginning of 2025, artists and researchers have been creative in the “Arts & Aesthetics in Contemporary Society Lab” at different locations in Europe and in different groups on the following five key topics: Unmaking Nature, Unmaking Citizen, Unmaking Heritage, Unmaking the City, Unmaking the Work.
The “Arts & Aesthetics in Contemporary Society Lab” is understood as a transnational co-creation space in which various interest groups from research, art, music, etc. as well as regional partners cooperate with each other. It will open this summer in Bad Ems.
For one year, we will be launching hybrid events with both artistic statements in public spaces and research projects in the cultural studies community.
Thanks to the collaboration with the Mainz University of Art and Design, the Artist Residency Schloss Balmoral, the University of Agder and ENSA Dijon, the first chapter will open in June:
Un/making Nature
The exhibition Un/making Nature at RichCake (Römerstraße 27, Bad Ems) explores the un/making of nature on various levels: Ontos (the nature of metaphysics), Birth State (the etymological origin of nature is “birth”, often understood as the state of a landscape before human intervention), Form (the nature of abstraction, theoretical ideals), Mimesis (the nature of imitations of nature), Perspectives (ontology, epistemology, philosophy, optical devices).
The main theme of the exhibition is based on “Heraclitus” and states: “Change is the only constant”. The installations in the rooms of RichCake will show different objects from the categories of sculpture, painting, research/viewing device, literature and others, which are visually exciting both individually and as a whole, but also distort or question various things.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue
Artists & Curators: Jonas Høgli Major, artist and Associate Professor of Architecture, University. Agder, Norway
Sigurd Tenningen, Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Agder, Norway
Date & place: 20.6 – 28.7, RichCake, Römertsraße 27, Bad Ems