andrea haenggi’s 10-year ongoing project in co-creation with the terrestrial and aquatic plants called “to be with the shore is all we ask” started in 2021 in response to the New York City’s 10 year long Comprehensive Waterfront Plan of the transformation of the shoreline, through an invitation by the arts organization Works on Water.
The New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan outlines numerous commitments aimed at enhancing the well-being of the waterfront. These commitments are framed with a focus on future desires and are predominantly written from a human-centered perspective.
Haenggi’s ongoing 10-year project begins not with what we, as humans, desire, but with “what is here.” It asks how we can avoid prioritizing destruction, such as hardening the shoreline, further harming shoreline ecosystems, and reclaiming land from the sea. Instead, it advocates for initially engaging with multispecies communities—comprising both humans and non-human inhabitants of the shores—as a means to decolonize perspectives and seek social and environmental justice. Rather than viewing the waterfront, shoreline, and intertidal zone solely as threats for flooding and destruction, the project encourages seeing them as spaces of transformation where the rhythmic ebb and flow of tides is ongoing relation and communication with the land and the sea.
2021: Community Performance Gathering, one-to-one multispecies tour with community members, letter to the Major Candidates, Performance
2022: Public Procession, Performance and Installation
2023: Fellowship at NYU/Tisch: participatory online media website, installation and performance at the NYU Bobst Library, click on https://www.tobewiththeshoreisallweask.care/ to the enter participatory online media website
