Period
2017 - ongoing
Proposed by
Visible Team
Location
various locations
About the project
Swamp is a long-term artistic research project by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, first conceived for the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Using the swamp as both metaphor and methodology, the artists challenge anthropocentric norms and modernist ideas of architecture, framing wetlands as unstable, queer, and generative spaces of resistance.
The Swamp School transformed the biennale pavilion into a living laboratory, bringing together architects, ecologists, philosophers, and local communities to experiment with multispecies communication, collective intelligence, and new forms of cohabitation. Activities ranged from workshops on floating pavilions to the cultivation of peat bogs, later adopted by a Venetian farmer.
Since Venice, the project has expanded into ongoing initiatives such as Swamp Intelligence (with AI scientist Jonas Kubilius), Futurity Island (with architect Indrė Umbrasaitė and sound artist Nicole L’Huilier), and the Swamp Observatory (with philosopher Kristupas Sabolius and researcher Nikola Bojić). The artists have also published Swamp Manuals and are preparing the book Swamps and the New Imagination.
Through these evolving iterations, Swamp positions wetlands as sites of ecological and cultural resilience, spaces of uncertainty and transition that open possibilities for rethinking care, architecture, and planetary futures.
External links
About the artist
Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas are a Lithuanian-born, US-based husband-and-wife duo known for their collaborative, interdisciplinary art, research, and educational practice. As co-founders of Urbonas Studio, they create socially engaged, participatory projects that merge art with urbanism, new media, and social sciences. Both are affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
