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Moving Like Water

A hanging model of cardboard, timber slats and a white sphere suspended through a white stairwell — The shared model, hung through the stairwell.

2026

Underground city, scans, sound and model
Stuttgart. With Julie Finstad, Anoek Huijsmans, Jane Wildschut and Isa Zorn

Under the streets of Stuttgart runs the Nesenbach, a river that was covered in concrete and still flows beneath the city. Traces of it show up in manholes and drains. We started from there: not a clearly marked site, but a scattered field of entrances, thresholds and hints of what lies below.

Water always finds its way, so we tried to move like it. We opened doors, went down into underground stations and followed passages that were never meant as entrances, as deep as we were allowed to go. Where we could not go in, we scanned, recorded and imagined.

What came back became a set of fragments: 3D scans turned into long sections, imprints of manholes and drains, a soundwalk, and models shaped by how the spaces felt. Together they make one shared model of Stuttgart's underground, hung through a stairwell: spaces that are only partly accessible, and only partly known.

Where will these access points to the city underground lead us, and how far are we allowed to go? How do we enter spaces we cannot physically enter?

From the exhibition text

Exhibition

The model seen from below, running the full height of the stairwell past a fire extinguisher and a green door — The full height of the stairwell.

Two visitors on the stairs looking down at the model hanging between the flights — At the opening.

Looking straight down the stairwell onto the hanging model, a printed aerial map of the city on the floor below — From above, with the city on the floor.

A visitor looking up into the hanging model of timber slats and cardboard — Looking up into the model.

A stack of grey blocks and a white sphere hanging under a zigzag cardboard strip — The Soundwave model.

Several cardboard model pieces and a slatted grid hanging on wires in the stairwell — Fragments of the underground, hung on wires.

A small square timber model hanging just above a printed aerial photograph of Stuttgart — Over the city.

Three people at a balcony rail looking at the model hanging in front of them — At the opening.

A long printed section mounted high on the stairwell wall under two windows — The full section, on the stairwell wall.

A print of a road arrow pointing at a drain, hung on a white wall — A way in.

A white cast imprint of a manhole cover lying on dark gravel — An imprint of a manhole cover.

Underground

On the way down we scanned what we found: stairs, tunnels, storage rooms and stations. Joined together, the scans became one continuous section of what lies under the city, and a set of prints of the places in between.

A long section made from 3D scans: stairs, corridors, stations and rooms floating in white at different depths — The full section of the underground. Press to open, and again to zoom in.

3D scan of a staircase descending through a building, in pink and blue false colour on black — Scan of a staircase down.

3D scan of underground rooms and stairs in orange, pink and blue false colour — Scan, underground rooms.

A group of people kneeling around an open manhole in a pedestrian street — At a manhole on the street.

A pale underground passage with a red doorway and a framed picture at the far end — An underground passage.

A road arrow painted on asphalt, pointing down at a drain — A drain: one of the ways water goes down.

Process

Someone holding up a large sheet covered in notes, sketches and photographs in a storage room — Mapping what we found.

A whiteboard of notes on water, porosity and access, with small sketches — Working it out.

Pen sketch of a tube and scattered circles with handwritten notes — Sketch.

Someone in gloves casting small silicone panels at a table — Casting the silicone doors.