Nr. 19 1% Water
1% WATER aims to be a catalyst for change, reconnecting us physically and psychologically to water and helping us to shape a sustainable future. The exhibition explores themes such as AbUse, Sacred Waters and Reconnect through works by artists such as Atelier van Lieshout, Brandon Ballengée, Elina Brotherus, Edward Burtynsky, Amy Jenkins, Michaela Nettell and Studio Orta, designers such as &Made, Doshi Levien and Fulguro TJAW and graphic designers Karlssonwilker, as well as key historic pieces.
Read the NYTimes article (August 8th, 2009): Creating a solutions to a water crisis
1 / Water Archive
The Water Archive is an aquatic ‘laboratory’ immersing the visitor in water samples collected from the region of Hasselt. The archive aims to provoke questions about the character of natural waters and to raise awareness of man-made issues such as pollution. Visitors can help to complete this archive by bringing water samples from their own environment. See
www.onepercentwater.org
2 / Water Ab
Use
The critical state of water today exposed through documentation, design and art.
Factors such as climate change, pollution, privatization the growing global population and increasing consumption mean there will be less water available per capita in the future. This section aims to highlight the critical situation and to visualize the concept of the water footprint, showing how we actually use and abuse water and contains works from Brandon Ballengée (US), Philip Ross (US), Studio Orta (GB), Kendra Wan (CH) and Karlssonwilker (US).
3 / Sacred Waters
Water is an important life source and historically played an important role in religion, mythology and culture.
These layers of meaning once helped to protect water and us to understand and value it. In the last century we have lost a lot of this meaning. Sacred Waters aims to reveal the links between ritual and need in water cultures globally and includes the work Ebb and Flow by Amy Jenkins (US), Baigneurs by Elina Brotherus (FI), Stamping the Water by Song Dong (CN) and Bathysphere by Michaela Nettell (GB) as well as a Wunderkammer containing historic and contemporary objects associated with water rituals such as a rock crystal ewer, vessels for tears and aquamanilia.
4 / Reconnect: tactics for sustainability
The final section looks at tactics for reversing the flow, how we can reconnect to water with imagination and passion.
Reconnect aims to show how the problems of water explored in AbUse are challenging designers to find new ways with water and how they are absorbing the sense of cultural meaning and value. It looks at how we can collect and use water more responsively and responsibly, and how everyday tasks are being re-invented to give new respect to the water environment.
Reconnect contains work and ideas from &Made (GB), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Doshi Levien (GB), Fulguro and TJAW (CH), Hanneke Geurts van Kessel (NL), Oskar Peet (CDN) and many others.
