In modern times, the abundance of water and its constant availability paradoxically make it invisible. Underground circulation and complex hydrological systems, such as karsts, are relegated to the background of everyday life. Water becomes a mere factor of production.
Faced with this reality, initiatives are emerging. Counter-narratives are amplifying the voices and practices that are reinventing our relationship with water and the environment, away from the dominant discourses. In the Jura, the history of cooperatives, pioneers of social security, inspires collective water management. The karst, with its underground and borderless networks, calls for reflection on interdependence and the commons, inviting us to imagine new cooperative utopias around water.
In the form of an assemblage of aerial shots, 3D illustrations, interviews, and scientific images, this video essay explores crucial water issues in five chapters, from popular narratives to scientific knowledge, from the rejection of running water and its scarcity to the exploitation of rivers.
The presentation of this work is supported by the S+T+ARTS4WaterII programme
DISNOVATION.ORG merges contemporary art, research & hacking to translate complex eco-social debates into operative and provocative exhibits critically. They create radical artworks staged as large laboratory experiments focused on energy, ecology, and economics that work as catalysts for crafting futures that diverge from prevailing narratives. Their exhibits, books, and videos permeated global cultural landscapes, fostering a critical dialogue at the nexus of artistic, political, and scientific inquiry. They co-edited A Bestiary of the Anthropocene with Nicolas Nova, an atlas of anthropic hybrid creatures, and The Pirate Book, an anthology on media piracy.
DISNOVATION.ORG’s works have been exhibited, performed, published and reviewed worldwide, including at the Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou, Jeu de Paume (Paris), Museum of Art and Design (New York), Fonderie Darling (Montréal), HMKV (Dortmund), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Ars Electronica (Linz), MU (Eindhoven), Strelka Institute (Moscow), China Museum of Digital Arts (Beijing), Chronus Art Center (Shanghai), Polytechnic Museum (Moscow), ISEA (Paris, Hong Kong), Elektra (Montréal), HEK (Basel)... Their work has been featured in Forbes, Wired, Vice, Motherboard, Libération, Die Zeit, Arte TV, Next Nature, Hyperallergic, Le Temps, Neural.it, Digicult, Gizmodo, and Filmmaker Magazine among others.
Image credit: DISNOVATION.ORG
