This exhibit-event seeks to create a public space of witnessing, dialogue and speculation in the wake of the double flood event that devastated the city of Volos and the surrounding region in September 2023. Emerging out of the interdisciplinary collaboration of social anthropologists, architects, artists and activists and centering community voices and student research and creativity, Floodmarks aims to document the scars of this climate collapse event on local landscapes and ecosystems, households and infrastructures, bodies and souls. Through interactive and experiential workshops (participatory design and fanzine creation), multimodal exhibits (architectural models, ethnographic podcasts, video screenings), a geolocated audiowalk, an installation made especially for the exhibit by city artists, a flood “totem” co-assembled with objects brought by local residents and special sessions (lecture, round table), the exhibit envisions alternative ways of living with the natural environment, with non-human beings and with each other than that imposed by top-down ‘anti-flooding’ engineering works.

Floodmarks was co-organized by members of the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology (IAKA) and the Department of Architecture (TAM) of the University of Thessaly, the Pelion Summer Lab (PSL) for Cultural Theory and Experimental Humanities and the Volos Art Association, with assistance from the staff of the Museum of the City of Volos.