Water is a force that produces history, culture, language and social relations. Bodies of water shape human development, sustain trade and empire, and offer means of escape and refuge. The belief in water as the wellspring of life is a tale as old as time itself, held in memories written and recited, from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, to the indigenous North American origin story of Turtle Island, to the Bible and the Holy Quran.
Over time, much has shifted in our understanding of water. Currently, water is in crisis; simultaneously scarce, through drought, and threateningly over-abundant, through floods and rising sea levels.
How can we understand this life force through its production of myth and its anchoring of spiritual beliefs? Can connecting to a range of world views relating to bodies of water as living beings transform our own approach to the climate emergency?
Bringing together works from around the globe that explore human relationships to water, ‘An Ocean in Every Drop’ asks us to think with water, following its flows through the past to inform our present.
With works by: Jumana Emil Abboud, al-Istakhri, Martha Atienza, Raven Chacon, Cian Dayrit, Léuli Eshrāghi, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Abul Hisham, Candice Hopkins, Sohrab Hura, Hussein Nassereddine, Thảo Nguyên-Phan, Daniel Otero Torres, Karan Shrestha, Fatima Uzdenova, Munem Wasif.
Karan Shrestha (b. 1985) is in residency as part of the “Cité internationale des arts x Institut français” program.