WE ARE OCEAN_Ein Fluss werden (Hanau)

We have been preparing for many months, and now finally the project is ready to be launched! For WE ARE OCEAN in Hanau we invited the artist Bilge Emine Arslan to create a project for the Hohe Landesschule Hanau. Together with Dr. Jan Steger, Marine Biologist from the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research in Frankfurt, we generated the concept for WE ARE OCEAN_Ein Fluss werden (Hanau) which will be co-created together with 27 10th grade students from 24 to 27 August 2026 at the Hohe Landesschule Hanau.

Through an artistic-scientific exploration of specific regional bodies of water, we become aware of the connection between city, countryside, river, and ultimately the sea. What can we do to foster greater awareness and commitment to the sea, so that we all treat this vital resource with care? How can we introduce young people to knowledge about the sea and engagement with the ocean through art and poetry? For this project, we were able to commission the Berlin-based artist Bilge Emine Arslan, who explores the themes of ecology, migration, identity, and landscapes in depth, working primarily with the media of drawing, cartography, material research, and storytelling. She will build a poetic bridge between the bodies of water in and around Hanau and the seas and the ocean, in order to convey to young people not only the scientific context but also the essence of our natural world and humanity’s interdependence with the ocean, while actively involving them in a process of raising awareness.

In the closing event, questions from the students and experts from the fields of art, science, and society will be answered and discussed in a fishbowl discussion. Students will present there works and statements. The installation will be shown to the public. Here, the students will gain self-confidence and public speaking skills, as well as an awareness that their voices play a vital role in society.

The artistic outcomes will later be presented at an official exhibition space. The participating students will curate their own show as part of the project.

We thank our generous funders the Kunstvoll by Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and the Friends of the School Association Hohe Landesschule as well as the co-financing partner Okeanos Foundation for the Sea.

And our cooperation partner Senckenberg Society for Nature Research Frankfurt.

Hohe Landesschule Hanau

Artist: Bilge Emine Arslan

Curators: Anne-Marie Melster, Julia Moritz

Marine biologist: Dr. Jan Steger

Teachers: Astrid Holle, Stefan Prochnow, Swantje Stein-Hellmann

WE ARE OCEAN is an endorsed project by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Develpment (2021-2030)