Diplomatic Suitcase
The Diplomatic Suitcase is a multimedia, portable installation that unpacks into an exhibition. Inside, you’ll find artefacts like a 1970s seahorse bone from Mar Menor, a bikini from the Polish River Sisters, and algae from the Venice Lagoon. Each object tells a story of care, resistance, and the urgency of water protection. Through these items, the challenges and resilience of Europe’s waters come to life. These objects became a representation of the struggles the network shares, whereas the Diplomatic Suitcase opens the negotiations we individuals, ecologists and politicians must have.
In 2022 I became part of the Embassy of the North Sea, were I started to co-developed the Confluence of European Water Bodies, a growing alliance of over 25 grassroots communities representing seas, lakes, rivers, lagoons, and glaciers. In September 2023, we gathered for the first time at Spain's Mar Menor, the first European ecosystem with legal personhood. Afterwards, in 2024, around the Venice Lagoon and this year, around the North Sea in the Netherlands. During this convergence, we shared experiences, strengthened bonds, and filled the Diplomatic Suitcase as a symbol of our collective commitment to water diplomacy.
The collaboration was a powerful act of solidarity. Together, we explored new strategies for advocating water rights in cultural, legal, and political arenas. Through dialogue and mutual learning, we built a network of water guardians, amplifying our call for ecological and social transformation. The Diplomatic Suitcase now carries our shared stories, urging others to join the movement for water democracy.
Group-exhibitions
Spore Berlin: Wasserspiegel - Water Bodies
25.07.2024–21.08.2024
Venice Biennale: Studio Carlo Pioppo
21.09.24-2024.09.2024
Museum of Contemporary Art Lisbon – MAC/CCB: Interspecies
03.04.2025-31.08.2025
Upcoming: September: Mediamatic, Amsterdam
Concept Embassy of the North Sea & TBA21 Academy
Artistic Direction & Design Jakob Kukula & Leon Lapa Pereira
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Eva van Bemmelen
Co-Production Confluence of European Water Bodies
© 2023, Jakob Kukula & Leon Lapa Pereira
Aris Leon Lapa Pereira (he/him) is a cross-disciplinary performance researcher exploring the boundaries of performative life. Deeply embedded in the landscape of Artistic Research, his personal practice is consistently informed by philosophical inquiry. By merging mechanical and technical knowledge with performative elements, he engages with multiple disciplines with genuine enthusiasm.
Currently focused on the de-romanticisation of nature, Leon investigates the Rights of Nature—specifically, the rights of water—in collaboration with the Embassy of the North Sea. Through this partnership, he co-founded the Confluence of European Water Bodies, a growing network of activist organisations that support his research into intercultural relationships and intimate connections with water.
Alongside this, he is a curator at the Instrument Inventors Initiative (iii) and co-founder of the WASTELAND Festival, where he leads research and performance curation through an ecological lens. Co-creation and collaboration are not just professional principles for Leon, but also sociological commitments—central to his Resonant Bodies Residencies, where these concepts are deeply explored.
For Leon, co-living is a vital practice that is increasingly endangered by today’s polycrisis. He is, therefore, continually seeking methods and tools to cultivate honest, careful, and communal environments.
