FLUID BOUNDARIES:
THE INTERPLAY OF WATER, ART, SCIENCE AND
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS
INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY PROGRAM IN SOUTH AFRICA, BRAZIL AND SWITZERLAND
2025
Water is an essential resource for life on Earth, and a key element in the history and contemporary of all cultures. Stories and myths about water, reverence towards its spiritual meanings, policies linked to its politics, and strategies and technologies of its uses and applications, may be traced across times and geographies. Within the sector of water there are many commonalities, but there are also significant divergencies.
Fluid Boundaries: The Interplay of Water, Art, Science and Indigenous Knowledge Systems is a project that brings together participants from South Africa, Brazil and Switzerland in a collaboration situated at the trans-disciplinarity of art, science, and curatorial and indigenous knowledge practices. By creating a common space for the exploration of water, the programme integrates methods and perspectives through different lenses, thereby also challenging the dogma of power paradigms by disrupting the false dichotomy of centre and periphery. It is these very different and highly complex experiences that serve as the entangled starting point of the project. The various, unpredictable threats to life inflicted by the climate crisis add to the urgency of our multi-perspectival approach, in a bid to create sustainable, equitable access.
The project uses a research- and practice-driven approach, emphasizing process, that brings together arts and science to interrogate how we feel, think and act about our relationships to water.
Interested artists from South Africa, Brazil and Switzerland were invited to apply for one of the residencies at the scientific partner institutions in their home country, and Kamil Hassim from South Africa, Carla Maldonado from Brazil and Michael Azkoul from Switzerland were selected.
Via a three-month residency programme, these artists work in science labs, and the process is informed, mentored, questioned and supported by indigenous knowledge convenors and the curators. At a later point, the participants come together in a two-week workshop in Lugano, Switzerland. Within this context(s), knowledge is shared, research questions discussed and ideas for artistic projects developed.
