RefuBees – prototyping and long-running case study

RefuBees functions as a prototype and long-running case study at the intersection of art, ecology and urban engagement. Since 2012 the project has been developing and testing interdisciplinary methods by which cities can function as temporary refuges for specific wild bee species – not as a solution to ecological collapse, but as a situated response within it.

These methods take shape through BeeTotems in public space, through performative and educational formats such as the BeeCircus, and through collaboration with international researchers, artists, ecologists and institutions. Over the years RefuBees has been presented, discussed and critically questioned at symposia, conferences and public gatherings, as a contribution to a broader discourse on urban responsibility, more-than-human coexistence and long-term thinking. On this website these threads come together: concrete case studies, conceptual frameworks, collaboration networks and ways to take part. Whether you come here as a resident, researcher, curator, policymaker or student, RefuBees invites you to explore how small, precise actions can reverberate through much larger ecological and cultural systems.