Fluid Bodies, Tidal Voices
2023 | Performance
15th and 16th of September 2023
as part of the WeWater|SpreeVision exhibition
supported by ECOSIA
An exploration of social norms within an exhibition space in the context of themes such as water, memory and embodiment.
What is the significance of water in our shared human existence? How does water connect us - to the past, present, and future? What memories and experiences might be carried within the water in our bodies, and how do those reflect the cyclical nature of existence?
“Fluid Bodies, Tidal Voices” raises these questions in order to cultivate a deeper sense of unity among all living beings through our relationship with water. Approaches of performance, photography and text illustrate the timeless journey of water and our embodied relation towards it.
At the core of this project lies an interdisciplinary exploration of the interconnectedness of humanity through water's timeless memory. It seeks to remind us that the water in our body may have once flowed through distant rivers, ancient seas or other bodies, connecting us to the ebb and flow of life throughout time. Thus, we could understand our human bodies as part of the natural world and not separated from or privileged to it.
Without a noticeable beginning or end, the performance unfolds as a journey, guiding visitors subtly through various stages of water's life cycle. With vocals and movements, the six performers embody the essence of water, embracing its various forms and transformations. Auto-aquatic-biographies unfold into dialogues between performers and visitors infusing the water with power and agency. This interactive part of the project promotes a sense of co-creation, as the audience becomes an integral part of the fluid narrative.
Reminding us that we are all connected through the ever-flowing memory of water, “Fluid Bodies, Tidal Voices” invites us to empower water as a living entity, acknowledging its vital role in sustaining life. The interdisciplinary project is a call to nurture a culture of gratitude and care with all of our bodies of water, in order to create a more sustainable future for all living beings and their intertwined destinies with this life-giving force.
Performers: FREYAS [Tamara Bettemir, Veronica Bracaccini, Annekatrin Kiesel, Victoria McConnell, Lucia Reussner, Katharina Scheidtmann]
“To think of embodiment as watery belies the understanding of bodies we have inherited from the dominant western metaphysical tradition. As watery, we experience ourselves less as isolated entities and more as oceanic eddies: I am a singular dynamic whorl dissolving in a complex, fluid circulation. The space between ourselves and others is at once as distant as the primeval sea, yet also closer than our own skin.”
Neimanis, Astrida. “Hydrofeminism: Or on Becoming a Body of Water.” Essay. In “Undutiful Daughters: Mobilizing Future Concepts, Bodies and Subjectivities in Feminist Thought and Practice”, edited by Henriette Gunkel, Chrysanthi Nigianni, and Fanny Söderbäck. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.