By Carolina Dopico González, Regenera Network - 6 may 2026 - 5 mins read
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
PartArt4OW is pleased to announce the release of a new video-documentary and photographic reportage documenting the work of the first six Participatory Art Initiatives (PAIs) funded by the European Commission through the PartArt4OW project. These materials capture the spirit of the PartArt4OW First Demo Day, which took place in February 2026 in Badalona, Spain, a landmark event that brought together artists, scientists, citizens, and local organisations to showcase bold, community-driven responses to the challenges facing Europe’s oceans and water basins.
A Visual Journey into Participatory Art and the Ocean
Produced by the project partner Raw-News Agency, the video-documentary and photographic catalogue offer an engaging narrative window into PartArt4OW’s philosophy and methodology. The materials illuminate how the project supports European local communities tackling oceanic and inland water-related issues through creative understanding and awareness-raising practices.
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
The First Demo Day in Badalona was a key milestone for PartArt4OW, creating a shared space for exchange, visibility, and connection across the first cohort of PAIs. The newly released audiovisual and photographic materials capture the energy and diversity of the practices, territories, and communities involved.
Six PAIs from Across Europe
Selected through a highly competitive open call that attracted 434 applications from across Europe, the six funded PAIs represent a remarkable range of artistic and participatory approaches to water-related challenges:
Art of the Dredge, Luleå, Sweden
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
Kyiv Whale Eco Hub, Kyiv, Ukraine
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
Seatizen Bio Murals, Brzeźno, Gdańsk, Poland
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
Tidal Orchards, Loch Eishort, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
Posidonia Art Reef, Bogliasco, Liguria, Italy
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
Sea of Sounds, Bodø, Norway
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
From multimedia explorations of dredging practices and interactive eco-hubs, to bio-murals, living sea gardens, underwater art reefs, and immersive VR experiences centred on ocean soundscapes, these initiatives demonstrate the extraordinary creative potential at the intersection of art, science, and community participation.
Photos by Giuseppe Lupinacci / Raw-News Agency
Art as a Bridge Between Human and Non-Human Natures
Video Documentary by Federico Fornaro (Raw-News)
The video-documentary and catalogue reveal how PartArt4OW’s approach is deeply materialist. Organic materials, when artistically transformed, become powerful vehicles for forging emotional and creative connections with the ocean. In this way, the project establishes a virtuous cycle between human creativity and the non-human world, with artists mediating the interaction and unlocking the expressive potential of natural materials.
The project demonstrates how nature can be positively reimagined through art, technology, and human intervention to restore biodiversity and the marine environment, blending the languages of art and science through participatory processes.
Virtual reality technology, when embedded within participatory and artistic frameworks, has proven to be an effective vehicle for bringing human society closer to the hidden life of the seas. The project highlights that meaningful emotional attachment to the ocean requires not just metaphor, but a physical infrastructure to support it.
Liminal ocean spaces, such as tidal zones often perceived as featureless, emerge through the project’s lens as fertile, inhabitable environments where interspecies life can thrive. PartArt4OW also draws attention to the many human-made structures spanning the sea, revealing how life forms and materials intertwine in the zones where human society and the ocean coexist, co-produce, and sometimes clash.
Transforming Meanings Through Participatory Art
One of the most compelling insights from the released materials is how participatory art can profoundly subvert established meanings. As demonstrated by the Kyiv Whale Eco Hub, a material as symbolically charged as plastic waste can be transformed into something fundamentally opposed to its original identity as trash. This reveals that the nature of a material is never static but constantly evolving, shaped by creative action and collective imagination.
By documenting both the individual initiatives and the Demo Day event itself, the reportage supports PartArt4OW’s broader mission: to make visible the ways in which artists, scientists, citizens, and local organisations are working together through participatory art to address pressing water-related challenges across Europe through its accelerator programme.