British artist Robyn Woolston, known for her poignant explorations of environmental and social themes, delves into the delicate balance between nature and human development in her film Edgeland. Created during her residency in Gdańsk as part of the Turning the Tide project, the film serves as an eco-poetic narrative addressing the pressing realities of climate change, coastal urbanization, and their profound impacts on local communities and ecosystems.
Set within the historic and geographically vulnerable Gdańsk delta, Edgeland captures the region's migratory histories and its connection to the democratic roots of Solidarność (Solidarity). Woolston combines visual storytelling with environmental psychology and community perspectives, offering a deeply layered portrayal of resilience and the ongoing challenges of climate adaptation.
Her reflections seamlessly blend historical context with modern urgency, making Edgeland a poignant contribution to Turning the Tide, a European Creative Europe-funded initiative that highlights the role of art in addressing global environmental challenges.
Robyn Woolston:
"An eco-poetic response to rising seas, coastal conurbations and rural hinterlands. Rhythmic and inter-personal in nature, the durational work provides an embedded portrait of a location strongly influenced by the foundations of the European democratic movement. Migratory histories, carried by Baltic flows, form a framework that’s underpinned by the social architecture of Solidarnoś (or Solidarity) and Lech Wałęsa.
Geographically, the work is set within a tri-city context where waters threaten to “… reshape cities, economies, coastlines and entire global regions within our lifetimes” (Scott Kulp quoted in ‘Poland’s beaches are threatened by global warming, warns sea researcher’ Ludwika Tomala).
The film represents the culmination of a month-long residency in Poland as part of the ‘Turning The Tide’ collaborative partnership.
Simultaneously it relays information related to the Polish Gdańsk delta, and its associated precarity in terms of recurrent flood events, catastrophic ‘surge’ rainfall scenarios and the potential for water table salination (Reagan Park, for example, is a location where 30 percent of all municipal water for the city is currently sourced and is liable to flood with oncoming storm surges) whilst connecting with academics from the University of Gdańsk, including Tomasz Besta, an associate professor at the Institute of Psychology and Michał Jaśkiewicz, environmental psychologist and urban activist also based at the university. Their research areas map across the analysis of intergroup relations, collective actions, radicalization, human-nature relations and group dynamics."
'Turning the Tide (TTT) is a transformative European cooperation project, co-funded by Creative Europe, dedicated to exploring and addressing the pressing issue of climate change through the lens of artistic and cultural practices...We envision a world where artistic expression and cultural engagement are central to understanding and tackling environmental challenges. Our project aims to empower local communities, amplify diverse voices, and foster innovative solutions to the problems posed by climate change, with a focus on waterfront communities uniquely affected by these global issues.’ ----
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.