Natural Contract Lab

STILL HERE: THE LIVING LAW SONG Listen to a recording via link in bio 🎵 Context: this song emerged from a cycle of Enchoirings-with — gatherings where we attuned our bodies in reciprocity with the SZenne river and its kin, exploring whether we could resonate with its living knowledge and become its stewards. This song is a poetic interpretation of the SZenne Living Law and an attempt to transmit the knowledge passed to us from its already existing guardians: the beings of the river, encountered during three years of Walking-with the Szenne. In this song we acknowledge the challenge of understanding the river beings as co-creators, but clearly perceive them as collaborators, teachers and companions – ones who reciprocate in wind, flow, movement, song, warbling, caroling, and many other ways that exceed human vocabulary. This Song is felt in love, attunement and care. The Living Law is both a legal document and a Living Preamble — not written to represent the river, but emerging from its remembrance as embodied knowledge. It is a sensing cartography of stories, rituals and embodied encounters with the beings of the Szenne: one that helps us remember the river as an ecosystem of meaningful relationships, as a living entity. A proof of reciprocal care, of kinship, of a legitimate alliance calling for the river’s legal recognition in Belgium. Credits 2023/2026 Co-creation SZenne River and its beings, Patricia Van Cutsem, Tania Soubry, Caroline Daish & Natural Contract Lab and Still Here Alliance. Arrangement Patricia Van Cutsem.

CAE member, Youngsook Choi, shares her practice of ecological grief and ecoliteracy at the walking-with symposium & public tribune ‘STILL HERE: AN ALLIANCE OF CARE FOR THE SZENNE RIVER’, hosted by Natural Contract Lab at VIERNULVIER in Ghent, Belgium. “What does it mean to recognise a river as a bearer of rights? What does it mean to propose a law rooted in ecological grief, care and embodied relationship —weaving reciprocity, kinship and restorative justice with a river and its more-than-human communities?” Since 2021, Natural Contract Lab has been walking with the Szenne River and its kin — trees, people, mud, knotweed, nettles, seen and unseen — from its source under a willow tree in Naast to its confluence at Zennegat. From this practice has emerged the Living Law: a proposal for the legal recognition of the Szenne River’s rights in Belgium, written by legal scholar Brunilda Pali and environmental lawyer Jef Seghers in close collaboration with Szenne neighbours, kin and allies. On May 2nd 2026, this work opens to the public for the first time. The day unfolds in three movements: ‘Walking with’ the waters of Ghent; a transdisciplinary conversation on rights of nature, ecological grief and water solidarity with guest speakers Youngsook Choi, Xandra van der Eijk, Hendrik Schoukens and Christiane Bosman; and a Public Tribune where the Living Law is shared and embodied through ‘Enchoiring with’ — a multispecies choir carrying this living testimony toward parliament. Natural Contract Lab team: Maria Lucia Cruz Correia, Vinny Jones, Brunilda Pali, Lode Vranken & Jef Seghers. Multispecies choir guided by Caroline Daish, Patricia Van Cutsem & Tania Soubry 📍VIERNULVIER, Ghent 📅 Saturday May 2nd 2026 🔗 Info & Programme via link in @naturalcontractlab bio @young.sook.choi

• STILL HERE: A WALKING-WITH SYMPOSIUM & PUBLIC TRIBUNE • What does it mean to recognise a river as a bearer of rights? • On May 2nd, Natural Contract Lab opens three years of Walking-with the Szenne River to the public — presenting for the first time the Living Law: a proposal for the legal recognition of the Szenne's river rights in Belgium. The symposium at VIERNULVIER in Ghent brings together artists, legal scholars, and river allies for a day of walking, conversation and song — culminating in an Enchoiring-with, a multispecies choir voicing the Living Law through song. Together, we explore how to resonate our stewardship and share stories of connection with the river and its beings — rehearsing the living testimony we will carry to parliament next year. With guest speakers Youngsook Choi, Xandra van der Eijk, Hendrik Schoukens and Christiane Bosman. Natural Contract Lab team Maria Lucia Cruz Correia, Vinny Jones, Brunilda Pali, Lode Vranken & Jef Seghers Moderator Christel Stalpaert Multispecies choir guided by Caroline Daish, Patricia Van Cutsem & Tania Soubry 'The river lives, the river flows Our law evolves, our wisdom grows' 📍 VIERNULVIER, Ghent 📅 Saturday May 2nd 2026 🔗 Info & Programme via link in bio #livinglaw #zenne #senne #restorativejustice #ecologicalgrief • GROWING AN ALLIANCE OF CARE FOR THE SZENNE RIVER •

ENCHOIRING-WITH: A Multispecies Attunement • Last month, we gathered along the Schelde for the fourth Enchoiring-with séance. The river glistening beneath Ter Platenbrug, its soundtrack finding its way into our bodies as we listened, attuned, and began to hum. Memories of the Szenne and other bodies of water shared on the pontoon — each voice carrying a different stretch into the floating circle. The Szenne flows into the Dijle, the Dijle into the Rupel, the Rupel into the Schelde. Its waters already present, already listening. Then the walk inward — the Living Law threading through vierNulvier as a single, braided sound. Voices weaving into the song and its Preamble Score, the space awakening ahead of the symposium on May 2nd. Thank you to everyone who joined — for your openness, curiosity, and for trusting the river with your voice. The next Enchoiring-with continues on Friday April 24th at Zenne Garden, Brussels — 16h to 19h. Sign up via the link in bio!

ENCHOIRING-WITH: A Multispecies Attunement • On the eve of the spring equinox, we arrived as a murmuration at the Szenne's source in Naast — moving through fields of artemisia, a plant of ancient healing — and the land seemed charged with what Hildegard von Bingen called 'viriditas': the greening force, the divine vitality that pulses through living matter. We were greeted by a hare and two deer, voices dissolving into a collective sound piece the swamp received and held. 🌿 Soignies, Zinnik, Szenne — the town has always carried the river in its own name. We sang the Living Law, the song shapeshifting across tongues as the river moves across territories. Our multispecies choir is still growing, all info via link in bio. #enchoiringwith #stillhere #zenne #rightsofnature #multispecieschoir #livinglaw #naturalcontractlab images by @miremariastudio

Enchoiring-With: a Multispecies Attunement STILL HERE – an alliance of care for the Zenne River For the past three years @naturalcontractlab has been Walking-with the River Zenne — sharing stories, remembering, restoring, learning from its forms of care, becoming kin and growing an alliance of care. Now, in Stage Six of STILL HERE: Living Preamble, we begin reciprocating with the Zenne and its kin. Through voicing, witnessing and embodied practices, we will continue growing the Zenne Multispecies Choir, weaving stories of connection with the river and the Living Law, creating a Preamble Score together. How does our body receive, in reciprocity to a river? Join us in this exploration 🌱 This cycle is activated by Caroline Daish, Patricia Van Cutsem and Tania Soubry, who have been Walking-with the Zenne and its Kin. All workshops are developed in collaboration with the Szenne River, exploring how to receive its presence and respond to its atmospheres — wind, flow, and movement — through collective voice and resonance. 24 March 2026 — 16:00–19:00 @viernulvier.gent Sign up via this form: /forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezvUGQ0uCmqJzr-U6usVsue7co5RA3tYxKhE-Zpuw-0Kjbaw/viewform or via the linktree on @naturalcontractlab 's Instagram.

ENCHOIRING-WITH: A Multispecies Attunement • Last Friday's walk upstream along the banks of the Szenne still lingers in our bodies — in the flow of water moving through our hands, in the pulse of river and soil beneath our feet, in the chants, confabulations, and gestures that emerged along the way. Two vessels of river water passed from hand to hand as living companions. We synchronised our bodies with the river's rhythms, birds began to sing with us in a fleeting multispecies choir — and a participant unexpectedly sounded a conch shell horn, echoing the Szenne's resonance. This stretch in Lot — "destiny" in Flemish — is dear to our practice. The circle of trees has become kin, and here voicing and listening become gestures of gratitude — to water, soil, trees, and streams — attuning us to their currents and tides. From water ceremony, through sound memories, deep listening and voicing — learning, slowly, the song that carries the Living Law for the Szenne. We are learning not to represent the beings of the river, but to become guardians with them. The choir is still growing — find out how to join us via the link in bio. #enchoiringwith #stillhere #rivers #zenne #rightsofnature #riverstorytelling #riverguardians #multispecieschoir #livinglaw #restorativejustice #carolinedaish @hiros.be @marialuciacruzcorreia @taniasoubry @patriciavancutsemartist images by @miremariastudio

Under a Willow tree a river emerges to later become buried underneath Soignes and Brussels city. Last week we begin a new cycle with the SZenne river: Enchoiring-with a series of six workshop rehearsals with the river. With a question: How can we resonate in reciprocity and stewardship with the river? Listening and sensing Singing our stories of care and the Living Law On the picture a moment of listneing with love from Zenne guardian #VitalijaPovilaitytePetri Join us for Enchoiring-with, a multispecies attunement activated by vocal archivist Caroline Daish, singer-songwriter Patricia Van Cusen, and choreographer Tania Soubry in a series of workshops leading us to becoming a multispecies choir to attune and resonate with the Zenne river. Contact:[email protected] #enchoiringwith #stillhere #rivers #zenne #rightsofnature #riverstorytelling #riverguardians #multispecieschoir #carolindaish #hiros #PatriciaVanCusen #TaniaSoubry

OPEN CALL — For the past three years @naturalcontractlab has been walking-with the River Zenne, sharing stories, remembering, restoring, learning from its forms of care, becoming Kin and growing an alliance of care. Yet… we wonder if our bodies can resonate and transmit what we have learned through voicing. How does our body receive, in reciprocity to a river? Join us in this exploration on how to keep growing the Zenne Multispecies Choir 🌱 All applications through the link in our bio!

We are looking for a Creative Producer, who can support the continuation and realisation of a long-term process of growing an alliance of care with and for the SZenne River’s people and its earth beings. Spread the word!! STILL HERE – Living Preamble Click bellow for the full job description! https://hiros.be/en/are-you-the-creative-producer-were-looking-for/

A river that starts under a willow tree, and gently emerges through the muddy earth and becomes the Zenne river. A river that has been growing in my body, has helped to learn how to become its steward. Has taught me how to collaborate with a landscape, about resilience, reciprocity, remerging from the darkness, embracing toxicity and kinship. But most of all as taught me this song! The song of the Zenne! I am the river, we are the river I am a weaver, we are are the weavers I am a vessel, we are the vessel I am a steward, we are the stewards I am the story we are story this is the story of the bird this is the story of the water this is the story of the fish this is the story of the tree this is our story With vinnyjones, lode vranken, Brunilda Pali, Saartje Monden, Flore Herman, Thessa Kruger, Matteo Deblasio, Marzia Dalfini, Jef Seghers and Caroline Daish, Laura Eva Meuris, Melanie Ganino #stillhere #rivers #zenne #waterecologies #rightsofnature #riverstorytelling #riverguardians #weavingstorieszenne #multispecieschoir #carolindaish #hiros

Living law ~ For the last three years, we have been learning from the SZenne river how to become its ally and guardian. On the tidal confluence, we had humbly shared the first draft for the Living Law for the SZenne River with a collective reading, braiding and a song. Yet, how can we write a Law rooted in interbeing and embodied relationship? And how can we co-share stewardship with the beings of the river?  This Living law, has been a process of co-writing led by Brunilda Pali and Jef Seghers as an attempt to interweave the principles of rights of nature, restorative justice and most of all the embodied relationship of the alliance of care with the river SZenne.  In this living law we are trying not to represent the beings of the river, we are learning to become guardians with the beings of the river! Our proposal reflects the knowledge, care, and love that have grown from being with and walking with the river for the 3 years. “This law arises from love, from grief, from respect, from care, from joy.”  Join us for the first public sharing of the living law on May 2 2026! More info in the bio #stillhere #rivers #zenne #szenne #waterecologies #rightsofnature #riverstorytelling #riverguardians #weavingstorieszenne #restorativejustice #regenerativejustice  #hiros