Following an open call that attracted nearly fifty applications, WAMU-NET is pleased to announce the three artists selected for its residencies within the European project S+T+ARTS AquaMotion.
The selection followed an intense Pitch Day where artists presented their proposals to an international jury. Three projects were selected to highlight the need to build a new relationship with water through heritage.
Each residency will last twelve months and take place in a unique Italian site, hosted by three WAMU-NET members: the National Archaeological Park of Campi Flegrei (Naples); the Municipality of Montegrotto Terme (Padua) with its Museum of Ancient Spas, and Acque di Romagna (Forlì-Cesena) with Hydra, the Eco-Museum of Ridracoli.
In the Campi Flegrei, Lukas Taido, a Berlin-based multimedia artist, will develop the residency ‘Aqua Ductus: Water Traces’. Using microscopic imagery, sound recordings and scientific analysis, his installation will virtually ‘refill’ the Piscina Mirabilis (the final part of the Augustean acqueduct, 2nd century AD) with both ancient and contemporary waters with a video-installation, thus, re-evoking the memory of the Roman aqueduct bust also sparking reflections on present-day water contamination challenges.
At Montegrotto Terme (Padua), Sara Bonaventura, an Italian multimedia artist with a strong international career, will create ‘Thermal Alchemy’. Inspired by the ancient local Roman hydraulic heritage and microbial life in thermal muds, she will design floating sculptures and performative costumes for an audiovisual work that turns invisible ecosystems into tangible and collective experience.
In Emilia-Romagna, Matteo Zamagni, an Italian artist based in London, will lead ‘Suspended Memories’. Through a mixed reality installation and a video essay, his project will reconstruct the lost wetlands of the region, revealing their ecological importance and suggesting regenerative practices for climate resilience.
The three residencies answered to three specific challenges previously designed by WAMU-NET through an international open call: ‘Echoes of liquid knowledge’ in the Campi Flegrei, ‘Re-imagining water’ in Montegrotto, and ‘Holding water in a shifting climate’ in Ridracoli. All residencies officially begin in October and their launch is marked by the kick-off meeting that takes place in Terceira, Azores (Portugal) on 1–2 October - an inspiring meeting for exchanges and new collaborations that brings together more than eighty participants among project partners, residencies’ ambassadors, and the selected twenty five artists of the S+T+ARTS AquaMotion residencies.
Photo above: clockwise from bottom left, the three artists selected for WAMU-NET residencies: Lukas Taido, Matteo Zamagni, Sara Bonaventura.