Stories of Water

 

Curated by Olena Iegorova and Camille Regli

 

OnCurating Project Space is pleased to present the first chapter of the screening exhibition series “Stories of Water” (Nov 2022 – March 2023). We invite you to explore a selection of video works that dive into the aqueous depth of various scenarios and narratives. Understanding water as a fundamental source of life, and a space carrying countless myths and mysteries, the artists dissect the terms, challenging our relation to it. The presented works navigate unsettling realities – them being political, social, environmental and technological in scope. They are, in one way or another, reflections of current paradigm shifts and all center around a common idea: water – in particular oceans, ice, lakes, rivers – no longer follows its natural streams but has become both the means and the vessel of human needs. How have the widest and deepest ecosystems on Earth become so monitored, controlled, and appropriated? And, paradoxically, how are they still so underestimated and under-studied?

In November, the video works of Magali Dougoud, Roberto Niño Betancourt, Elisa Strinna and Jeon TaeHwan intertwine specific research, poetry, metaphors, and provide vivid accounts of some important topics and histories. As stated in Elisa Strinna’s video, ‘I’m here but it is as if I would not exist’ – the abysses remember it all.