Sacred Ecohydrology

Nischal Khadka and Merel Maan Galama

Nischal Khadka grew up in eastern Nepal near Saptakoshi (‘seven rivers’), one of the world’s most unpredictable river systems, reshaping the landscape and carrying ecological, spiritual, and Indigenous histories in its waters. Growing up in the Netherlands, Merel Maan Galama observed how water is guided by designed landscapes informed by centuries of flooding. Against this background, Khadka and Galama’s work delves into water landscapes, juxtaposing Himalayan river cosmologies with Dutch designed water systems.

The duo’s gathered field recordings of ditches, canals, rivers, wetlands, pumps, sluices, and submerged environments reveal how listening acknowledges the tensions between coexistence and control. Through their field research, a water creature emerged—doomed as invasive, characterized as aggressive, and labelled as disruptive. Its presence is associated with severe ecological damage, yet the work approaches these designations from the creature’s imagined perspective, moving between fact and fiction to explore water as a living relation in motion.

Sacred Ecohydrology is a collective listening experience in which water becomes more than a resource. By combining ambient sounds, stories, and live sonic interventions with Himalayan gongs and cymbals, the artists seek to understand water as a collaborative partner, carrying memories, histories, and forms of knowledge that continually transcend the systems designed to control it.

Meeting point: Safi Faye Saal

Next date:

• Date Saturday, 03/October/2026 16:00 bis 16:45
• Venue Haus der Kulturen der Welt
• Address John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin-Tiergarten