Lisa
Tan

The Way of the Water
An art parcours in collaboration with the Traisen and the Mühlbach
April 30 – October 30, 2024
Curators: Joanna Warsza
Lorena Moreno Vera
Tangente St.Pölten Festival
St. Pölten, Austria

Artists
Cecylia Malik, Christina Gruber, Edgar Calel, Hélène Meyer and Filip Van Dingenen, Rita Fischer, Clara Laila Abid Alsstar, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Eva Grubinger and Werner Feiersinger, Javier Téllez, Lisa Tan, Sissel Tolaas, Amanda Piña, Jimena Croceri, Katarina Pirak Sikku, Roberta Lazo Valenzuela, Klara Hobza, Lisa Truttmann, Paola Torres Núñez del Prado, Rainer Prohaska, Kollektiv Neonpink, Regina Hügli, Slavs and Tatars, Sophie Utikal, Ursula K. Le Guin

Installation view, Reading Lewis Hyde, 2024. Photo Credit: Simon Veres

Photo credit: Peter Rauchecker

For Tangente festival, Joanna Warsza, curator for fine arts, and Lorena Moreno Vera, associated curator for fine arts, are developing an exhibition in collaboration with the river. From 1 May to 6 October, the work of twentythree artists can be seen along the waters of St. Pölten.

The existence of all living organisms depends on water. When we drink a glass of water, this water flows through us back into the world. With every sip, we enter into a cross-species exchange with various living beings, but also with meteorological, cultural, ecological and geophysical technologies. Our bodies are largely made up of water; it is both a source of life and a deadly element, bringing both salvation and danger. It can also mark a border or be a sign of pollution, a carrier of time, memory and change, of colonial exploitation or indigenous struggles. Water is transnational, transcorporeal and political. Most human settlements were built along rivers. Rivers are the backbone, lungs, legs and head of urban development. They cut through invisible and visible walls and fences and serve as both a means of transport and a barrier. This is also the case in St. Pölten, which was once founded on the Traisen in Roman times.

The starting point for the exhibition “The Way of the Water” was a series of fundamental questions for the artists: What does it mean to you to enter into a collaboration with the river? How can art be created in interaction with the river, its seasonal changes, the sun, the drought, the rainfall, its artificial forms and changing shapes? How can we convey our humanity as part of a “hypersea” of myriad bodies of water? Can we design interventions or conceptual gestures that not only talk about environmental personhood, but subtly connect with it? Talking to the river, sitting in the river, floating with the river?

Photo credit:
Simon Veres
Peter Rauchecker

Associated Events

Opening of Way of the Water with a tour of the art parcours, Sonnenpark, St. Pölten. 1 May, 2024.

The Way of The Water at Kunstraum Niederösterreich, wien, with Edgar Calel, Cecylia Malik, Lisa Tan, Filip van Dingenen and Hélène Meyer in conversation with the curators Joanna Warsza and Lorena Moreno Vera. 3 May, 2024.

Reviews

Robles de Medina, Xavier. “Swimming Upstream. The Way of the Water...“ Passe-Avant. June 07, 2024. Web.
link / pdf